NCIS Series One Recaps
by HinkyKinky
Summary: Recaps of each episode from Series One! *Rated M just to be on the safe side*
1. Episode 1: Yankee White

**S1Ep1 - Yankee White**

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The episode begins with an exterior shot of Air Force One. The President is seen boarding the airplane, inquiring about his "baby backs" (ribs) from Papa Joe's, and requesting an early lunch. He moves through the airplane in the company of two Secret Service agents (a man and a woman). As they pass a Naval officer, the President inquires, "Wasn't Major Kerry supposed to be handling the football on this one?" The woman advises him that Major Kerry came down with the flu. The President stops to chat with the Naval officer, who is introduced as Commander Ray Trapp. Commander Trapp turns out to have met the President before, on the _USS Abraham Lincoln_. The President makes a few remarks, then invites Commander Trapp to join him for lunch. As he proceeds to his office in the company of the male Secret Service agent, the woman remains behind, telling the officer, "Lunch with the boss on your first day? You're destined for stars on those shoulders, Commander." She walks away. He sits, and can be seen patting a black briefcase which sits to his side.

 _[Note: The "football" being discussed is a specially outfitted briefcase used by the President of the United States to authorize the use of nuclear weapons. More information on the "football" can be found_ _here_ _at Wikipedia.]_

Air Force One takes off, and time presumably passes. The aircraft stewards can be seen serving lunch. One inquires of the two secret service agents - Agent Baer and Agent Todd - if they would like some lunch. Both decline. Agent Baer leaves to get a sit-rep in the comm center, leaving Agent Todd to "keep an eye on things down here." She asks him if he is expecting a problem. He replies, "Expect problems, Agent Todd. And with a little luck, you'll never lose a President."

Moments later, Commander Trapp returns from lunch with the President. He is visibly perturbed, moves slowly, and is sweating. He drops the "football" and stares at his hand. As he picks it up again, with Agent Todd watching and looking worried, he makes a comment about fumbling the football during his first Army-Navy game. He introduces himself to Agent Todd, who returns the favor. We learn that her first name is Kate. Commander Trapp continues to speak, but his voice is weak and he seems not to be able to catch his breath. He slumps into his chair and Agent Todd asks him if he is ill. He begins to convulse, falling into the floor, and Agent Todd speaks into her wrist comm - "Slammer, Rosefern. Medical emergency, section 1." Agent Baer comes running, as do medical personnel who begin to work on the Commander. Agent Todd tells the doctor that the Commander has just returned from lunch with the President. The doctor runs to check on the President. Agent Todd is ordered to stay with the "football." Close up on Agent Todd's worried face.

 _Opening credits._

The scene opens on a sexy silver-haired gentleman using hand tools to work on a boat located in a basement. He is interrupted by a telephone and when he answers, we learn his name is Gibbs. A younger man speaks to him from an office somewhere, advising him about the death of the "football" carrier. Air Force One made an emergency landing in Wichita, Kansas, and the younger man has booked them on the first available flight, which includes a layover. When asked if that was the best he could do, he protests, "It's Saturday, Gibbs." Gibbs instructs the younger man to have Ducky get in touch with his coroner friend and ask him to hold the body until they can arrive.

The two men are now seen moving through a Washington, D.C. airport. The younger man complains about everyone else ("FBI, CIA, ATF, even NYPD") having private jets, but "we" do not. They arrive at the security checkpoint and advise the TSA guard that they are LEOs. The (clearly clueless) guard replies that he is a Capricorn, in a "so what?" tone. They clarify that they are Law Enforcement Officers, providing permits and identification from an agency called NCIS, of which the guard has no knowledge. The guard says they can go around the metal detectors but their bags must be scanned. This exercise in governmental logic is interrupted by the arrival of an older man who calls out to the guard that those are his bags. It turns out that this gentleman - the doctor - has a bag permit and they can now skip the scanning process.

Back on Air Force One, a coroner is arguing with an FBI agent, refusing to allow anyone to move the body until the medical examiner arrives and releases it. Agent Todd jumps into the fray; it seems the FBI is trying to steal the investigation from the Secret Service and she is determined to prevent that. The older doctor, who is now identified as Ducky, arrives, trailing Gibbs and the still-unidentified younger man. There is discussion of steaks having been air-expressed. The FBI man is introduced as Agent Fornell. Ducky orders that everyone who boarded in Wichita must leave the plane. Agent Fornell refuses; Agent Todd flew in on the plane. They are allowed to stay. The details of Commander Trapp's death are discussed. Agent Todd mentions that the President is fine and his physician diagnosed Trapp's death as a stroke. Ducky admits it looks like a natural death and that the agents can have the body if they sign releases. As they leave to do so, the coroner asks Ducky about his soft-shell crabs. Ducky says "You'll have them by the weekend."

As soon as the coroner and agents are gone, Gibbs orders the young man - Tony DiNozzo - to get the pilot to fly them out of there, quickly - they are stealing the body and the airplane. Tony goes. Gibbs and Ducky discuss the Commander's death. Agent Todd returns, suspicious: "There's not a soft-shelled crab within a thousand miles." Gibbs identifies himself as NCIS. Todd refuses to give up her part in the investigation and Gibbs offers her a spot on his team. When the pilot refuses to take off without Todd's authorization, she tries to hold out for a chance to head up the team, but concedes when Gibbs threatens to hijack the airplane and leave her behind in Wichita. Tony literally shuts the aircraft door in Fornell's face, and the plane leaves.

Gibbs gets on the comm with his boss and is ordered to make sure that the FBI does not get the body, because if they do, "we won't see an autopsy report until after they leak it to the _Washington Post_." Below, Ducky is taking the temperature of the corpse's liver to determine time of death. Todd tells him that the President's physician called it as 2032 Zulu. Discussion ensues when Tony asks Agent Todd to stand clear so that he can measure the crime scene for sketches. He must explain why he takes the sketches (measurements are impossible to determine from photos, involving an amusing discussion of the measurements of a swimsuit model on a magazine cover.) Ducky states he would put the time of death as 1915 Zulu, an hour or so earlier than the President's doctor. Todd says he must be mistaken. Gibbs, returning, tells Ducky to note his own time. Then he tells Tony that sketches are not needed; Agent Todd will give him a floor plan.

She follows him as he tours the aircraft, refusing to provide the floor plans because they might be leaked. Gibbs states that NCIS does not leak. He discusses how he's seen all this in a Harrison Ford movie. They discuss the commander, and Major Kerry's flu. More discussion of who left the plane (everyone but the stewards who prepared and served the President's lunch.) Todd learns Gibbs' first two rules. The question of the time discrepancy is resolved - the President's physical was busy checking on the President and did not call TOD until his return to Commander Trapp's body an hour later. We learn that Ducky likes to tell stories and Kate has a great smile. Upon entering the President's office, where Tony is waiting (in the President's chair), Gibbs begins to collect evidence in the form of lunch leftovers. Todd becomes ill and is chased to the bathroom by Gibbs, who makes her vomit into an evidence bag. Gibbs then sends Tony to get Ducky.

We eavesdrop on a phone conversation between Agents Baer and Fornell, who make plans to steal the body (and the investigation) back from NCIS, who Fornell dismisses as "retread cops and ex-MPs." Baer points out that he cannot control NCIS. We go back to the airplane, where Ducky has examined Todd (who is lying on a couch) and confirmed that she appears to be suffering from a stomach virus. She confirms that she is - the same symptoms Major Kerry had. We learn that Todd and Major Kerry were having a clandestine relationship. Gibbs looks disapproving but says nothing, even when challenged by Todd. They maintain intense eye contact until interrupted by a call for Todd from Baer. She goes to take it.

We move to the President's office, where Tony is finishing up his interview of the Chief Steward. Gibbs enters and goes to the bathroom. Ducky follows. He and Tony take photographs of one another in the President's chair. There is discussion of the food, which is probably not where the poison came from since the President is fine. Gibbs comes out of the bathroom and they go to move the body aft. We see Todd on the phone with Baer, being ordered to turn the body over to the FBI on landing at Andrews Air Force Base. She doesn't like it (it's bad for her credibility with NCIS) but it's a direct order. She conveys this to Gibbs, and finds that the body is already moved. He tries to see if she will stall her people long enough for him to sneak away with the body; she refuses, saying she will not defy a direct order. They land at Andrews.

We see Fornell in a van with a driver, discussing why they let NCIS keep the evidence from the plane. A ringing cell phone interrupts their conversation - it is Tony, in the body bag in the back of the van! Gibbs is calling to let him know he can get out and Agent Axelrod is following them to pick him up when the FBI toss him out of their van. The scene switches to a teleconference room with big screens (we will later learn this is MTAC). Gibbs' boss (we will later learn he is Director Morrow) is conversing with the directors of the Secret Service and the FBI. He tries not to gloat about having won this round. He fails. The three directors agree to share the investigation with NCIS at the head. In the autopsy room, Ducky's assistant advises Gibbs that he found Abby and she is on her way in. Ducky advises Gibbs to go home and get some sleep. Gibbs opts for a nap on an empty autopsy table instead.

Tony enters the forensics lab with a box full of organic health food brought from the Commander's home, and we meet Abby, a perky Goth woman who is the team forensics specialist. She is examining the Commander's uniform, but Tony interrupts her and has her begin to examine the food instead. She sends him to take a nap on the futon she keeps under her desk.

The scene moves on to the next day, in the middle of the squad-room. Ducky is explaining cause of death - a cerebral embolism in the parietal lobe - to his audience, made up of Gibbs, Tony, Abby, and Agents Fornell and Todd. Abby elaborates that she found no foreign substances in the Commander's blood. They seem to agree that Trapp died of natural causes. Fornell and Todd turn to leave; Gibbs calls Kate back and asks to tag along on the ride out to California to rejoin the President on his flight back to Washington. She allows it but he is required by Secret Service regulations to come unarmed. He agrees and leaves with her, telling Abby and Ducky to keep looking. The team is left in surprise that Gibbs said "please."

Next we find Kate having dinner with Major Kerry (mentioned earlier) in a Georgetown restaurant. They toast Commander Trapp's memory. Kerry tells her that he and Trapp had lunch a few weeks ago and he gave Trapp suggestions like good dry cleaners, watering holes, and the like, but he did not tell Trapp about the restaurant they are in, because he might have run into Kerry and Todd there. She breaks things off with him, explaining that she is afraid that her focus would be off while working and that her lack of focus might cause the death of a President. He understands. They leave in a friendly manner; he sees her to her car, then goes to his own, where he convulses and dies in his front seat just like Trapp did.

The scene returns to Air Force One. Todd and Baer discuss Gibbs's joining them on the plane; Baer states that he is still just as perturbed as Gibbs; this is not over. Cut to Abby's lab: Ducky suggests that since she is having such trouble finding man-made poisons, perhaps she should look for natural ones (that is, venoms). Cut back to Air Force One: Todd and Gibbs discuss Kerry and Todd confesses to Gibbs that she broke up with Kerry. She blithers a bit. He says little.

Cut to: Abby's lab. She is trying to find the natural venom; having no luck so far. Back to Air Force One: members of the press are getting ten minutes with the President in turn. Gibbs points out that in the Harrison Ford movie he referenced earlier, the terrorists used a reporter to do their dirty work. Todd gently discounts his theory. In her lab, Abby keeps trying. On the street in front of the Georgetown restaurant, DiNozzo arrives at the scene of Kerry's death and is given the investigation by Metro P.D. In her lab, Abby discovers the poison: the venom of a coastal taipan (the most deadly snake in Australia). She is ecstatic.

On the airplane, Gibbs begins noting the differences between their current aircraft (the backup Air Force One) and the other plane (the one Trapp died on). Todd allows that the other aircraft is newer and has minor updates, including keyed locks on the current plane versus digital locks on the other. They are interrupted by a call for Gibbs from comm; he leaves, demanding that Todd make him a list of all differences between the aircraft. He goes to comm and receives the call from Tony, Ducky and Abby, who tell him that Major Kerry is dead and what he and Trapp both died of. They learn that the poison was probably put there by the dry cleaner; Morrow advises Gibbs that the FBI is taking the dry cleaner, which is probably an Al Qaeda sleeper cell.

Coming back downstairs, Gibbs drags Todd into a restroom for a private chat. Holding her own gun on her, he tells her about the venom. She is incredulous - "You think I did it?" - and he points out that she was alone with both Trapp and Kerry right before they died. He makes a sarcastic crack about her "kissing and saying bye-bye" with Kerry, and Todd attacks him, crying and slapping him. He holds her until she calms and sort-of apologizes, explaining that he gave her the information that way to see her reaction. They discuss what the purpose could be for killing the aide; Gibbs deduces that the killer _wanted_ them to transfer to the backup plane. While they are conversing, a man in the press cabin begins to convulse just the same as Trapp and Kerry. The medical team is summoned. One reporter (earlier identified as Leonard in a throwaway scene) is left unattended in a hallway.

While everyone is focused on the dying reporter, Leonard goes to a cabinet, unlocks it with a key, and pulls out an automatic rifle. He grabs a clip and loads it, cocking it and hiding it under his coat. Then he moves to return from whence he came (presumably the President's office). Back in the bathroom, Gibbs deduces that the different (keyed) locks on this plane are the reason for the diversions; that the terrorist they suspect to be on board must have a key to the armory. Todd replaces her earwig and learns that there is a medical emergency in the press cabin. Gibbs knows this is a diversion; he sends Todd to cover the President and goes himself to the armory, (running past the hidden Leonard) which he finds open. He arms himself with what looks like a Sig Sauer handgun. Todd advises the new "football" carrier that no one is to get past him, then moves farther into the plane, presumably into the office where the President is.

Leonard approaches the "football" carrier, who orders him to stop several times. He pretends ignorance - "What? What's happening?" until Gibbs, from behind, yells "Freeze!" Leonard does, turning slowly and saying, "Sure. Someone yelled for a doctor." He then opens fire with his automatic, missing Gibbs, who shoots him several times in the chest. Leonard falls, dead. Wordlessly, Gibbs hands his borrowed weapon over to a shocked Agent Todd and walks away.

After the plane has presumably landed at Andrews AFB, Gibbs and Baer take their leave of one another with friendly words and a handshake. Baer informs Gibbs that Todd has confessed her affair with Major Kerry and handed in her resignation, which Baer was forced to accept because of fraternization rules.

Kate is walking through a parking lot when Gibbs catches up to her. They discuss her leaving the Secret Service. She says it was the right thing to do. "Yep," Gibbs agrees. "Pull that crap at NCIS, and I won't give you a chance to resign." She stops in her tracks, calling out to ask him if that was a job offer. Just then, a silver BMW pulls up, driven by an attractive red-haired woman. Without answering Kate, Gibbs climbs into the BMW, kisses the woman on the cheek, and they drive away. Kate watches them go, looking stunned.

We return to Gibbs' basement. His television kicks on to news coverage of Fornell, discussing the attack and how it was foiled by Federal agents. Gibbs, seemingly unconcerned with the news, has gone back to working on his boat.

 _End credits._


	2. Episode 2: Hung Out to Dry

**S1Ep2 - Hung Out to Dry**

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The scene begins in a parked car; two teenagers are making out enthusiastically. Or rather, not so enthusiastically - the girl reaches the end of her tether and starts telling her young man to stop; he starts to make it pretty clear that he's not going to stop. She threatens to scream. With a crash, a human body slams through the roof of the vehicle, splattering both teens with blood. The young lady does, indeed, scream.

 _Opening credits._

Gibbs is working on his boat when Tony enters the basement, fills Gibbs in on the particulars of what we have already seen: the man who fell through the car roof was a Marine on a night-training jump with a parachute that failed. He looks around, sees Gibbs' cell phone in a jar of paint thinner and the land-line ripped out of the wall. He comments that he tried to call; Gibbs simply says, "Don't ask."

Cut to: the scene of the accident. The Marines who jumped are all in custody. The girl from the SUV is flipping out. Turns out, it's her father's SUV. MSgt Shaefer is on duty and unaware that his daughter took his car. Gibbs interviews her; they are interrupted several times by the big-mouthed young man, who behaves boorishly and obviously irritates Gibbs. She expresses the belief that the victim was alive after impacting the car.

Gibbs and DiNozzo approach the car; Ducky is already there on a ladder. DiNozzo goes after more equipment as Gibbs and Ducky discuss the unfortunate incident. Gibbs notes that a number of the parachute's shroud lines failed; he explains that this could lead to the chute "tootsie rolling" (refusing to open in the air, taking on the shape of a Tootsie Roll). Gibbs says the lines look worn, as though they simply broke. DiNozzo returns to the scene, trailed by Kate in a tweed suit and heels, who was having trouble getting past the M.P.s due to lack of photo I.D. She gets her first look at the body and is shocked. "My God! Is this for real?" There is some banter, and Gibbs produces a box, holding it out to Kate and welcoming her to NCIS. The box contains combat boots, because heels are inappropriate for crime scene work. Kate expresses amusement - "How did you know my size?"

Kate goes away to put her new boots on and Gibbs goes away. While working, Tony asks Ducky about the phones in Gibbs' house. We learn that today is the anniversary of Gibbs' third marriage; his ex-wife gets drunk every year about this time and calls him repeatedly (as this will eventually turn out to be Stephanie in Season 5, obviously her character underwent some serious changes in 5 years).

Cut to: an airplane hangar. The rest of the paratroop unit are being sequestered here pending the investigation. Gibbs is confronted by an angry CO who demands that his men be released so that they can tell their families they are all right. He also indicates that the men have another training jump tonight. Gibbs refuses, and grounds the unit. When the CO indicates that he may defy Gibbs and release the men anyway, Gibbs fakes a call to Commandant May of the Marine Corps to enforce his requirements. Here we learn that the dead man's name is Sergeant Fuentes.

Tony goes to investigate the airplane and Kate and Gibbs begin the interrogations. They begin with the members of Fuentes' "stick" (the group he jumped with). These are Corporals Dafelmair, Brinkman, and Ramsey. We learn here that Sgt. Fuentes' nickname was "Thumper" because he was extremely lucky - a walking rabbit's foot. Dafelmair says that a week prior to the incident, Fuentes was hit by a car while riding a new bike and was thrown through a plate glass window, surviving with only a "dinged" collarbone. We also learn that Dafelmair was the first to reach Fuentes after the accident. Gibbs releases the men, requiring them to prepare a written statement, and also confiscates their gear. Kate and Gibbs discuss the interrogation, and begin to believe that Fuentes' reaction time may have been slowed by painkillers he was taking for his injured collarbone.

In Autopsy, Ducky lists the various injuries Fuentes sustains and also confirms that Fuentes had a fractured left collarbone. He also confirms that Fuentes was alive - briefly - after impact. He further states that although Fuentes would have died of massive trauma, the technical cause of death was bleed out from the severing of his femoral artery.

In Abby's lab, Abby is changing her paintings and discussing them with Tony. She has hung a new one, a rendering of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the abdomen, and intends to call it "Blast From the Future." Gibbs comes in, looking for his toxicology results. It turns out that Fuentes was on Percocet and Vicodin when he jumped. Abby believes he took them right before jumping. Gibbs says the Marines in his string probably knew. Abby confirms that his reserve chute was fine. Further, she states that the shroud lines on the main chute exhibited fiber disintegration, but not from textile fatigue; rather they seem to have had some sort of acid-containing cleansing agent applied to them. Gibbs assigns Kate to assist Abby in determining what the substance is.

Tony and Gibbs return to the para loft, where Gibbs questions Cpl. Dafelmair, who (it turns out) is a rigger - someone who inspects and prepares the parachutes before jumps. It seems that Dafelmair packed the chute that Fuentes jumped with. There is discussion of the packing - the chutes are packed, then handed out randomly at jump-time. Between those events, they are kept in the para loft under lock and key. Ramsey and Brinkman are also riggers; Fuentes was senior rigger. The only people with keys to the para loft were Fuentes and their CO, Captain Faul. We also learn here that Dafelmair was a drug dealer before joining the Corps; he got the service-or-prison-time choice from the judge, and chose the Marines.

Cut to: Abby's lab. She and Kate are examining the substance on the shroud lines. They identify it as sulphuric acid. Kate asks Abby how she got interested in forensics; Abby reveals that when she was young, she lived next to a junkyard where the aftermath of car accidents was brought, and she used to sneak in at night and take pictures, trying to learn how things happened and the physics of each situation. Kate reveals that she spent a year in law school before deciding she hated it and going into law enforcement instead. There is banter; we feel that Kate and Abby will be good friends. And Kate still has a great smile.

Cut back to the base: Tony and Gibbs are caught up to by a Marine who brings Gibbs a new cell phone, sent by Ducky. They get a call, and Gibbs says he will be there in twenty. We find ourselves back in Abby's lab; in the darkness of her second room, she is standing amid the stretched-out shroud lines of a second parachute, illuminating them under a black-light. They glow strangely with a substance she identifies as sulphuric acid - the same cleaning solution that was on Fuentes' chute. Kate confirms that nine of the sixteen chutes to be used in the jump were tampered with. Four of them were packed by Dafelmair; the rest by Brinkman and Fuentes. We learn here that Cpl. Ramsey has been on a two-week rigging suspension because Fuentes wrote him up for shoddy work. Abby has found DNA traces on all nine of the tampered parachutes, but it is unidentifiable because they do not have access to Cpl. Ramsey's DNA. Kate suggests using the Armed Forces DNA registry; Gibbs says they can't, because it is only for identifying bodies. Kate maintains that there must be a way around that. Gibbs compliments her devious thinking.

In interrogation, Gibbs lays out his case for JAG Lieutenant Bud Roberts. Roberts agrees that the evidence is good; however, he refuses to lawyer them past the Registry restriction, despite Gibbs' attempts at intimidation. He does, however, agree to sign off on some search authorizations to keep Gibbs happy. Returning to the squad room, Kate and Gibbs discuss his tactics. He compares what he did to horse trading. Tony confirms the reason for Ramsey's rigging suspension and further states that scuttlebutt says Ramsey took a swing at Fuentes over the suspension. Gibbs gets a cell phone call with the caller ID blocked; Tony puts his foot in his mouth about Gibbs' marriage.

Gibbs goes to Sgt. Fuentes' house for reasons unknown. He has a chat with Sgt. Fuentes' young son, Billy, and his widow. He and Billy discuss the unfinished state of the tree house that Sgt. Fuentes was building and Billy's lack of a password for the tree house. Billy expresses his desire to make his father proud and not cry in front of the Marines at the funeral. Gibbs tells him about JFK, Jr. saluting the coffin at JFK's funeral. "You salute your dad today. Nobody will notice tears." He also assures Mrs. Fuentes that he will see justice done.

Back at base, we find Tony practising to jump out of an airplane. This is done by jumping off a raised platform into a sand pit. He tells Gibbs he is doing research for Abby. The three go to execute their search warrant on the riggers' lockers, which were all sealed immediately after Fuentes's death. In Cpl. Ramsey's locker, Kate finds a can of brass stripper solvent which contains sulphuric acid. Ramsey claims it is not his, and is taken into custody. In interrogation, a key to the para loft is found on Ramsey's key chain. Gibbs offers Ramsey a chance to prove his innocence by providing a DNA sample.

Back in the squad room, there is a discussion. The DNA sample will take 24 hours to run; Gibbs does not want to wait that long for answers. If Ramsey is innocent, Faul, Dafelmair or Brinkman may be guilty. He and Kate go to interrogate Capt. Faul. He has a good alibi for the time when the chutes were tampered with. Kate and Gibbs return to the squad room. Tony has more information. Ramsey participated in handing out the chutes despite his suspension. Fuentes supervised from the truck. Kate comments that Ramsey could have given Fuentes a dirty chute. Gibbs twigs on the words and heads back down to Abby's lab, Kate and Tony in tow. He wants Fuentes' reserve chute, but Abby has something more interesting: on the sabotaged shroud lines are traces of cocaine.

Gibbs looks at the reserve in question: it is too clean to have been involved in a bloody fall like the one Fuentes took. They go to examine Brinkman, Dafelmair and Ramsey's chutes, and they find one - number 13 - which is dirty. He examines it and discovers that the reserve is unusable - the cone has been soldered in place. Gibbs orders Kate to call Capt. Faul and tell him that jump ops can resume, but not to identify the killer (who is clearly not Ramsey). Then he tells DiNozzo that they are going to be jumping. He wants the killer to confess.

That night, Gibbs and DiNozzo join the paratroopers on their training jump. There is a conversation on the plane which leads to Tony switching reserve chutes with Dafelmair. When their stick is called, Gibbs confronts Dafelmair about his drug dealing activities. He advises Dafelmair that a confession and the name of his supplier will get him a deal. He cuts Dafelmair's shroud lines - Dafelmair knows the reserve is bad. Dafelmair asks how good of a deal he can get. Brinkman attacks him, screaming "He doesn't deserve a deal!" In the resulting scuffle, Tony is pushed out of the plane.

Back in the squad room, Tony watches news coverage of the arrest. He and Gibbs chat for a moment; he leaves, limping (this is what happens when parachute strapping pulls tight on a sensitive area of the male anatomy [or he simply landed wrong, seemed like he was favoring one knee. If he was "saddle sore" sore, I can't seem him being comfortable sitting with one hip hitched up on his desk, as he was sitting before he walked out of the squad room]). Gibbs watches him leave with some amusement. Gibbs remains behind, doing paperwork. Gibbs' cell phone rings. The caller ID reads "Caller ID Withheld." Gibbs puts the phone in his drawer and leaves.

The next morning, the door to the Fuentes' house opens and young Billy comes out in his pajamas to the sound of hammering. Heart-warmingly, Gibbs is up in the tree, finishing Billy's tree house. Billy wants to come up. Gibbs asks him if he has a password yet. Billy says, "Yes, sir! Semper Fi!" Gibbs admits that it is a good password. Billy comes up, and Gibbs lets the little boy help him finish the work.

 _End credits._


	3. Episode 3: Seadog

**S1Ep3 - Seadog**

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The scene is set: a group of college kids are partying on a beach. Their party is interrupted by the sound of gunfire out on the water. They turn the music off to hear better. Moments later, an unmanned speedboat drives ashore right into the middle of where they all were gathered. They scatter. Upon returning to the site, they find that the back of the boat has been peppered by gunfire.

 _Opening credits._

Gibbs enters the squad room on a Monday morning. DiNozzo is desperately searching for a case to avoid sexual harassment training. Gibbs opines that if he has to sit through sexual harassment training again, he'll shoot himself. In the nick of time they get a call. A dead Navy Commander washed up on the beach. They arrive to find a local officer talking to a reporter - Diane Fontaine. The officer states that the commander was involved in running drugs. He advises Gibbs that the DEA is working two dead drug dealers three miles north. Gibbs has DiNozzo escort the reporter off the scene, then he and Ducky chastise Sergeant Linn for contaminating the crime scene. Actually chastise is too mild a word for what they do! Verbal disembowelment comes closer.

Gibbs sends Kate to get witness reports, examine the boat and have it towed back to the garage. DiNozzo returns, with Fontaine's phone number, crowing. Ducky comes to the group, still ranting about Linn and the contaminated crime scene. They roll the body over and find that the Commander was shot in the back. Gibbs orders Tony and Gerald to bag the body and any evidence and meet him and Ducky at Fort Story, where the DEA is working the drug dealers.

Gibbs and Ducky arrive at the DEA scene and are met by DEA Agent Fuller and Army CID Captain Bradstone. Agent Fuller believes that the deaths are connected because "How many guys do you know go out fishing in the middle of the night?" Gibbs says that he does. The drug dealers, however, did not. Fuller believes that the dealers were killed for their drugs and their boat. Captain Bradstone's medical examiner is unavailable; he has no objection to NCIS and DEA working the scene as long as he can get the reports. Upon initial examination of the bodies, Gibbs discovers that they are carrying large amounts of $100 bills. Gibbs wants to know how many drug dealers dump bodies and cash.

Returning to the squad room, Kate is incensed that she was left to ride in the tow truck with the boat. She voices her displeasure. She then begins to go over the particulars of the evidence: the gun battle occurred around 0230. The Commander was running from the gunfire: there were six bullet holes in the stern of the boat and two in the engine housing. The partying students heard the attacking boat go up the coast. On the boat was all the evidence that the Commander was simply out doing some night fishing. No drugs. Gibbs tells Kate about the money; she wants to see it. Gibbs notes that the college kids were right: the shooters either went up the Chesapeake or the Maryland coast. He tells DiNozzo to find out which.

In Autopsy, Ducky is sharing a story with Agent Fuller while retrieving the bullets from the Commander's body. When he starts his incision for examination, Agent Fuller does not look well and abruptly excuses himself. Ducky sends a bullet up to Abby. We see Gibbs in the squad room doing paperwork; Fontaine is on the news telling how Commander Farrell was found dead on the beach near the drug dealers' bodies. She goes on to state that a night basketball program Farrell helped found - which was designed to bring at-risk youth off the street - has been suspended because of the suspected drug connection. Gibbs becomes determined to clear Farrell's name and restart the program.

Gibbs goes down to one of the basketball courts and finds two young men who have jumped the locked fence and are playing in the dark. He questions them about Farrell and whether he might have been involved in drugs. The young men are suspicious of Gibbs but, once he assures them that he simply wants to clear Farrell's name and get the basketball court unlocked, they finally tell him that they do not believe Farrell would have been involved in drugs. Here we learn that Farrell's nickname among the young men he helped was " _Seadog_."

The next day, in Abby's lab, Kate gives a mini-lecture about micro-printing on American money to foil counterfeiters. She has determined that the bills the drug dealers had are fake, because the micro-printing on them reads " _Untied_ " States of America. Tony states that according to the tide charts, judging by the location where the bodies washed up, the dealers' boat must have been entering Chesapeake Bay. Gibbs asks Agent Fuller to bring in the two rival drug gang leaders to help identify and locate the missing boat. He asks Kate if there is anyone with the Secret Service she can trust to help her find out who forged the money without informing their boss. She thinks there is.

As Kate leaves, Abby waves her arms to get Gibbs' attention from behind a window. She uses sign language to tell Gibbs that the AK-47 round that killed Farrell came from the same gun that killed the drug dealers. Tony is surprised that Abby can sign; Gibbs tells him that her parents were/are deaf. Tony asks where Gibbs learned; he does not answer. She comes out and advises him that she has more information. She found gunshot residue on the smugglers' hands, but Farrell was clean. In the elevator, Gibbs asks Tony for Fontaine's number.

Gibbs meets Fontaine for lunch. He offers her further information on the Farrell story in exchange for her being willing to air a story to clear Farrell's name. Returning to HQ, Gibbs refuses to give Tony details about lunch. The drug dealers are there; Gibbs goes down to Autopsy, where they are waiting. Gibbs pulls out the bodies; the drug dealers are Trujillo's. Gibbs explains about Farrell dying in the crossfire between Trujillo's and Wilkins' gangs; Trujillo decides to lawyer up. Gibbs brings out the counterfeit bills, explains that they came from a foreign government known to support terrorism. He explains his intention to hold Wilkins and Trujillo as supporters of terrorism and have them sent to Guantanamo to be held without habeas corpus. It works - Trujillo decides to talk.

Trujillo explains that the dead smugglers took the boat out without his permission or knowledge. Wilkins states that his people did not kill Trujillo's, and Trujillo believes him. Gibbs says he will accept this if Trujillo will give them the boat. Trujillo tries to claim he can't do this, but Wilkins tells them that all of Trujillo's boats are outfitted with GPS equipment. The boat, _La Eternidad_ , is located and the investigation there begins. The boat is shot up and the interior covered in blood. Gibbs sends Fuller out to find information, then stands on the stern of the boat, visualizing the shootout. Tony believes that he is looking at the attractive young ladies in a boat across the way.

Kate is sitting on a park bench, working on a sketch of Gibbs. Here we learn for the first time that Kate is an artist. A woman approaches her, calling her Caitlin. She greets her warmly. This woman is Marcy, to whom Kate has gone for help with the counterfeit money. They hug, but Marcy is not very friendly. They chat for a moment, then Marcy says that "we" were able to trace the money. Kate catches the "we" with consternation. Marcy chastises Kate for thinking anyone would slip her info on this. We see Agent Fornell standing nearby as Marcy explains that "we" had to inform the FBI. Kate is less than pleased.

Back at the marina, Fuller says that Jenny and Nancy - the young ladies Tony was admiring earlier - were very helpful. They saw a young man in his late twenties with a couple of cell phones and a laptop working on the boat. They saw a white van pull up, the men moved heavy suitcases and a third man to the van from the boat, and left. Tony insists he could get more information from the young ladies if Gibbs gives him a chance. Reluctantly, Gibbs allows it.

Back at HQ, Kate is standing in the squad room looking extremely incensed when Gibbs arrives. He asks if she got anything from her friend; she says "Yep." He walks around her to see Fornell sitting in his chair and turns back to her, saying, "You disappoint me, Kate." He then tells her she needs to seriously rethink her definition of the word 'friend.' She says that in Marcy's position, she'd have done the same thing. Fornell makes a crack about her running out of job options, then tells Gibbs that the serial numbers on the fake bills match some that were passed by 9/11 hijackers. The killers are terrorists.

In MTAC, Morrow is on the video chat with the director of the FBI, discussing the terrorists and that the FBI has a database of terrorist information. Morrow wants to know why NCIS didn't have access to this database. There is political maneuvering, and Morrow obtains permanent access to the database with some well-placed threats.

Back at the marina, Tony is enjoying an afternoon with a pair of young Australian 'sheilas' in bikinis. He seems to be working very hard, if his extremely poor Australian accent is taken into account. He gets them to re-enact their afternoon to try and remember more details about what they'd seen. As this is happening, the terrorist database finds a fingerprint match - a Seth Shakir, a Saudi terrorist with a high priority. He's wanted for a bombing in Baghdad. Tony returns from the marina with information: one of the girls remembered that the man driving the van was wearing a uniform. Tony got surveillance tapes and learned that the van belongs to the power company.

Abby arrives, bearing news that she was only able to match prints to the drug dealers in the cooler. She is advised that she did not have access to the whole database, and chastises Fornell. She also says that she found traces of C4 on the boat. Fornell is relieved that the terrorists are "just gonna try to blow something up." Fornell puts out an APB for the power company truck and leaves. Gibbs thinks Fornell is too fixed on his target. He mentions the great Northeast blackout of August 2003, which was caused in part by a tree falling on some power lines. With some research, they learn that three key failures in Virginia's power grid could cascade and black out the entire United States. They head for the nearest node, in Fairfax.

At or near the node in question, Shakir is seen working on his laptop. Gibbs finds a place where a transmission line crosses the node; if this were blown, it would work the same as taking out the node itself. They head for it, and spy Shakir sitting below the tower, working. He sees them arriving and begins to yell in Arabic. He grabs an AK-47 and shoots at their car. Gibbs returns fire. Shakir falls down, dropping his glasses, and crawls back to his computer, attempting to go ahead with the detonation. He is typing in the number to the cell phone when Gibbs shoots him. Shakir tries to continue, but Gibbs and Kate shoot him again and he dies.

They move to investigate the setup, disconnect the computer from the phones, and discuss. Gibbs says they are lucky he wasn't phone savvy; he'd typed in six of the seven numbers to the phone. Kate says he was savvy enough to wire all three phones to the same number. Gibbs points out that if Shakir had truly been savvy, he'd have used speed dial. Interesting comment from a man who acts as if he is a technophobe.

Cut to: a lighted basketball court, at night. Young black men are playing basketball; Fontaine is telling her story to a camera, clearing "Seadog's" name with the media. Gibbs is watching from outside the court. Fontaine finishes her story and approaches Gibbs. They talk. She cannot guarantee the story will be aired, but she is trying. He thanks her, walks away, and is picked up by the Bond Girl in the silver BMW.

 _End credits._


	4. Episode 4: The Immortals

**S1Ep4 - The Immortals**

* * *

We scene in on a boat party; several people are having far too much fun. One decides to take a swim, against the advice of his friends, who actually paid attention to the shark warnings. The inaptly self-titled Mr. Hard-body puts on a mask and dives in, tempting fate. Fortunately for himself, he does not find a shark; he does find a dead man in dress whites, wearing a Naval officer's sword and fifty pound weights wrapped around his waist.

 _Opening credits.  
_  
We find ourselves in the squad room, looking over Gibbs' shoulder at the dead sailor on a computer screen. The dead man is identified as Seaman Russell MacDonald, age 19. The ship MacDonald was assigned to had just left Puerto Rico heading to Norfolk. Tony talks for several minutes about how much he loves Puerto Rico. In Autopsy, we learn that there is no reason for MacDonald to be in dress whites, and as an enlisted man he should not have an officer's sword. Further, the "ceremonial" sword has been sharpened to a razor edge. Ducky is given a few minutes to wax poetic about the sword and of driving in England. Gibbs sends Kate and Tony to talk to MacDonald's mother.

Tony is having trouble with the idea of having to talk to the bereaved mother. From this interview we learn that MacDonald's father was Scottish, a member of the Black Watch, and his mother believes he was very happy and had many friends. He may have "had his quirks," but Mrs. MacDonald is emphatic that Russell would not have killed himself. This may have something to do with the MacDonald family's staunch Catholicism (suicide is a mortal sin for Catholics).

The team takes a helicopter out to the _USS Foster_ , which was MacDonald's duty ship before he went swimming with weights. The party line seems to be that MacDonald kept to himself; no-one wants to talk about him. Kate is dismayed to learn that the three of them are expected to share sleeping quarters. Gibbs volunteers to take the couch and leaves to investigate MacDonald's bunk. DiNozzo interviews MacDonald's CO, who says that MacDonald worked in the computer center on the ship and despite being good at his job, had recently become unfocused. The Lieutenant believes MacDonald may have killed himself. Kate interviews the ship's doctor, who confirms that MacDonald was having a hard time adjusting and that she suggested he go into counseling. She also states that MacDonald had a mysterious friend with whom he was obsessed. She does not think MacDonald would commit suicide. In MacDonald's bunk, Gibbs finds a book about Japanese sword fighting.

Via videoconferencing, Abby reveals that a St. Christopher medal and a role-playing game character generation sheet were found on MacDonald's body. She believes the game in question is an MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role playing game). Kate guesses that evidence, if any exists, will be on the Internet rather than on MacDonald's physical computer, since Abby believes "if he was any good, he won't leave any footprints." Abby has also found the sword blade had been nicked from contact with hard metal, such as another sword. Ducky confirms MacDonald drowned.

Tony interviews an ensign about the sword found with MacDonald. He confirms that all of the officers' swords are accounted for. They discuss where MacDonald might have got the sword; the obvious answer is the base exchange at Roosevelt Roads, in Puerto Rico. Gibbs interviews the ship's commander; the commander says that a good place for sword fights would be damage control, in the machine shop, after hours.

Back in Abby's lab, she is playing games at work. She's supposed to be - Abby believes she has found the game MacDonald was playing. She's a little too knowledgeable about it to be a casual gamer. Ducky stops by, tries to think of a story to go with her game, and comes up blank. On the _Foster_ , the medical corpsman is going through her records for Kate and looking for suspicious lacerations that may have come from clandestine sword fighting. Ducky brings Abby a Caf-POW! and we learn that the game is called " _The Immortals_." Abby explains that if she can penetrate the innermost stronghold of the dungeon, she can get a log of all characters who have played this game. She is brutally killed by an Orc during this explication and must begin again.

On the ship, Gibbs gets a call from Abby. She has succeeded in obtaining server logs and confirmed that MacDonald played _The Immortals_ as a character called Weylin, whose main rival was another character called Kinvaris, and that their primary mode of combat was sword fighting. She has also learned that Kinvaris' player was located on the _USS Foster_ with MacDonald.

Tony suggests going to Puerto Rico, buying a sword undercover, busting the clerk, and then "swapping" the bust for information on who else bought a sword. He wants 24 hours. Gibbs gives him six. In her lab, Abby finds "Weylin's" personal online journal. It is password protected. In Puerto Rico, Tony makes his undercover buy and busts the clerk - or tries, as she begins throwing clothing at him and screaming at him in Spanish. (Probably not anything Tony's not used to.) In the machine shop, Gibbs and Kate investigate some marks on metal poles which appear to have been made by contact with a sword.

They discuss the case. Kate is adamant that MacDonald would not have committed suicide based on the mother and the medical corpsman's testimony. Gibbs understands that Kate's own Catholic upbringing will not allow her to consider that MacDonald may have killed himself. She insists it's her cultural insight into Catholic families and not personal beliefs coloring her opinion. Tony calls from a bar in Puerto Rico to say that MacDonald definitely bought his sword at Roosevelt Roads, as well as three other seamen whose description Tony has.

Kate and Gibbs sit, going through files and matching descriptions to see if anyone matching the description of a sword buyer shows up on the list of suspicious lacerations that the medical corpsman gave Kate. They find a suspect - Petty Officer Ronald Zuger, who works in the computer center and supposedly cut his arm on a plate glass window, but there were no glass shards in the wound. Gibbs and Kate bust Zuger playing _The Immortal_ s in the computer center. Gibbs takes him away to interrogate him. He confirms that Zugler is "Kinvaris."

Abby cracks the password into "Weylin's" diary and calls Kate. She explains that MacDonald was pretty much a whack job. Kate volunteers to take over going through the diary. In interrogation, Gibbs begins to query Zugler about the sword fighting. Zuger denies it until Tony comes in with Zuger's unauthorized sword. Zuger seems to equate himself with Kinvaris in that creepy I-think-I'm-actually-my-character sort of way that gamers always seem to get in Hollywood (and in real life, I might add). He also has an alibi - helping a friend with a computer problem. Kate goes through MacDonald's diary and finds out that Abby was right - MacDonald was a whack job. He expresses paranoia that the whole crew is on "Kinvaris'" side and conspiring against him. The diary also mentions a "final triumph" and "the element of surprise."

Gibbs checks Zuger's alibi: it is MacDonald's bunkmate, P. O. Carnahan, who has been downloading porn onto his work computer and needed Zuger to clean it off before his CO busted him. Ducky, via video conference, confirms that MacDonald does not seem to have been in a struggle before he went overboard. Gibbs and Tony are fairly sure it was suicide; Kate is insistent that there's more to it. Gibbs thinks she means his Catholicism; she says she means the diary. MacDonald was intent on continuing to try and overcome Kinvaris, whom he has never beaten. Kate wonders "why someone so intent on his mission, however deranged, would off himself and end it." She continues reading in the diary that MacDonald planned to escape the ship and release a great plague against the realm as the sun sets beneath the next full moon. We are more sure than ever that MacDonald was a whack job.

MacDonald had applied for the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons program. He failed the psych evaluation. Gibbs becomes sure that MacDonald planned to blow a dirty bomb on the ship. Turns out, this is the date of the full moon and they have about an hour before the sun sets. Gibbs alerts the ship's commander and the red alert sirens begin to sound. Tony grabs Zuger and sits him in front of a computer to check his site for any clues MacDonald may have left. Kate checks with Homeland Security about any possible missing materials to build a dirty bomb; Homeland Security says they don't think so, but they'll check. ( _That's comforting_.) In the computer center, Zuger checks his site only to find that MacDonald has hacked into it and made it go kerflooey. He breaks down, near tears about the loss of Kinvaris. Gibbs gets in his face and jerks him back to dealing with the problems going on in reality, since Kinvaris doesn't really have to worry about anthrax or smallpox.

Kate and Tony start going through the diary again, looking for more clues. The ship is being searched for bombs, and evacuation helicopters are on their way from other ships. Gibbs gets a little physical with Zuger and the truth comes out: MacDonald had gone off the deep end and decided that he really _was_ Weylin and that Zuger really was Kinvaris. Zuger didn't kill him per say; he told MacDonald that if he really was immortal, he should walk across the ocean floor to dry land. When Gibbs wants to know why Zuger would let MacDonald do that, Zuger puts on his crazyface and says, "To win the game."

As the sun sets, the commander demands Gibbs report to his sea cabin. Kate and Tony discuss what MacDonald said in his diary about cutting off the head so the body will die. It occurs to Kate that the "plague" could simply be a computer virus. They deduce that because of MacDonald's paranoia, which extended to the crew, the threat of "cutting off the head" may actually mean killing the ship's commander. They bolt out of the computer center.

Cut to: The Commander's sea cabin. He is reading Gibbs the riot act about the ship being in an uproar. Because that's so important when we might all die of the plague. Kate and Tony burst in, demanding to know where the commander is at this time every day. He says he is here, in his sea cabin. Kate says "We gotta go. NOW!" and they run, Gibbs forcing the commander to run as well. The sun sets, the group get a few feet down the hallway, and the commander's sea cabin is blown, if not sky high, definitely into a state of sudden renovation.

In Abby's lab, Abby is trying yet again to explain the crazy gamer situation to Ducky, who is having as much trouble as the rest of us understanding why someone would think they were a character on the computer. We take a few minutes to allow Abby to recap the entire episode for us. Cut to: the ship, where our intrepid Agents are packing their stuff to go home. Kate is having trouble (as we all are) with the blurring of the line between reality and fantasy for MacDonald. Tony states he's glad his parents pushed him into sports at high school. For about the third or fourth time, Tony offers the souvenirs he brought back from Puerto Rico. Gibbs, tired of hearing about it, allows Tony to play Santa.

In Kate's bag is a "Puerto Rican bikini": bottoms and a matching hat. Gibbs asks if there's any chance she's going to try it on; Kate says "You first" and throws it at him. Gibbs, "Trust me, it's not gonna fit." Kate: "Pigs, I work with pigs! In Gibbs' bag is a MMORPG starter kit... in Spanish. Kate has a great smile. They leave; Tony returns briefly to retrieve the bikini bottoms.

 _End credits._


	5. Episode 5: The Curse

**S1Ep5 - The Curse**

* * *

We join a hunt in progress. The camouflaged man with the crossbow is apparently new at this, because he misses the buck he's aiming for by about three feet, shooting a defenceless tree instead. He comes down out of his deer blind and gives chase, only to trip over something and fall. He brushes the leaves off the item, breaks out his handy Boy Scout knife, whacks on it a few times, and then pops the handy hatch open. He pulls out a military bag with the legend "LCDR FARNSWORTH" painted on it, above a Navy insignia. Looking past this curious item into the open hatch, he sees a set of golf clubs and the mummified corpse we've all been waiting for. Mr. Sportsman flips out, understandably.

 _Opening credits._

Gibbs shows up at HQ just long enough to collect his team and haul their butts out of there again. He pauses long enough to provide us a with a helpful map view of Saint Mary's River State Park, which is presumably where Mr. Sportsman found our mummy. There is amusing banter regarding Tony's status as "Gas The Truck Boy". We skip the middle part and arrive at the park, where the local police are all over the scene and Mr. Sportsman is standing to the side, looking a little silly with his bow in his hands. Ducky theorises that the aircraft drop tank in which our mummy friend is located must have been airtight. Gibbs goes to chat with Mr. Sportsman, who says he thought it was a missile or bomb of some kind.

Gibbs verifies what Mr. Sportsman touched and did not touch and requests his fingerprints for exclusionary purposes. He is very nice. Must be the weather. Kate is taking pictures; Tony is sketching. He reports proudly that he knows what this is - a 314 gallon external fuel tank from an F-14 Tomcat. Here we learn that tomorrow will be the second anniversary of Tony joining NCIS. Then we learn that our mummy is a Lieutenant, meaning that the bag in the pod could not be his. Kate is to ride back to HQ with the pod on a flatbed.

In the evidence garage, Abby slices the pod open with a power saw. She has gotten some partial prints off the hatch that did not belong to the hunter. She should also be able to obtain a serial number from the bottom of the pod. Gibbs wants the TFOA report for this pod. Abby finishes cutting, and Gibbs and Tony lift the lid of the pod away. Abby evinces glee - "sailor on the half-shell!". There is discussion about the mummy's shoeless state and examination of the pod contents. From the mummy's dog-tags, he is identified as Lieutenant Mark Schilz. The golf bag is labelled as belonging to Lieutenant Lynch.

Kate comes up with Schilz's service record; he was reported missing off the _USS Eisenhower_ on March 4, 1994. Schilz was labeled a deserter 30 days later and received a dishonorable discharge after being charged in absentia with the theft of $1.2 million from the ship safe; Schilz had been the ship disbursing officer. Tony arrives back with the TFOA report; LCdr Farnsworth turns out to have been the pilot of the Tomcat that dropped the pod. Lt. Lynch turns out to be Farnsworth's Radar Intercept Officer. There is discussion of the plot so far. Kate theorizes that Schilz was trying to make his getaway in the cargo pod. Gibbs disagrees; the air would be nearly unbreathable at flight level for an F-14, and the missing money was not in the pod. Tony is set to locate the on-board NCIS agent from the _Eisenhower_ investigation; Kate is set to locate Schilz's widow.

Gibbs goes to autopsy. We learn that the unfortunate deceased suffered a postmortem broken jaw from one of the golf clubs hitting him in the face when the cargo pod landed. We also learn that, four years ago, Gibbs' third wife hit him over the head with a baseball bat. We also learn that Schilz apparently bled to death internally, probably stabbed with something small and thin (like an ice pick, maybe?) Which means that Schilz was murdered and then stuffed into the cargo pod. Back in the bullpen, Kate still has a great smile, and she uses it on Gibbs. They discuss the murder. Gibbs thinks an accomplice may have murdered Schilz, if he had been killed in the disbursing office, it would be next to impossible to transport his body to a cargo pod across a ship carrying 6,000 people. Kate locates Schilz's widow and from a helpful shot of her computer monitor, we learn the proper spelling of his name... and then we edit the recap.

Tony returns with the name of the NCIS agent, Richard Owens, who is currently located at NCIS Pearl Harbor. He puts his foot in his mouth when he describes the 37-year-old Owens as being "considerably" younger than Gibbs, and we all wonder how Tony's managed to make it two years without Gibbs firing him yet. In Owens' report, we learn that on the night of the robbery, there was a report of a man overboard. A life vest beacon was seen in the carrier wake; Schilz's shoes were found in the life vest hold. In his notes (which are attached to the file), Owens theorised that Schilz faked falling overboard and hid out on board until the carrier put in to Norfolk. Tony continues to irritate Gibbs. Something that Tony is a master at.

Kate interviews Schilz's widow; she is remarried with a daughter who is Schilz's daughter, born the same day Schilz went missing. We learn that Mrs. Schilz did not get any death benefits or dependent support from the Navy for her daughter due to Schilz's dishonourable discharge. We get our first glimpse of Kate's bleeding heart, and we learn that Schilz called his wife in the hospital from the _Eisenhower_ the morning he disappeared (which was a big deal in those days). In MTAC, Gibbs and Tony talk to Owens via video conference. Gibbs casts a number of aspersions on Owens' investigation and the more Gibbs talks, the more incompetent Owens looks. Owens is a little unhappy about this. Gibbs orders Owens to report to the _Eisenhower_ in Norfolk on Saturday morning.

In the evidence garage, Abby has been examining the pod. She has learned that the pod, which is attached to the Tomcat by two hooks, was deliberately set up to fall off the plane; whoever set it wanted it to fall off in the ocean but succumbed to epic fail. Tony continues to needle Gibbs about his age. Kate arrives back from Mrs. Schilz's house, bleeding heart on her sleeve. She tells Gibbs that Schilz called his wife at 0533 on the morning of the robbery; the call lasted twelve minutes. We learn here that the assistant disbursing officer was an Ensign Wiles - who, oddly enough, is the former Mrs. Schilz's new husband.

Saturday morning finds Tony doing the crossword while waiting with an impatient Owens for Gibbs to show up. Gibbs and Kate are at a shooting range, interviewing former Ensign Randy Wiles. We learn here that Mrs. Wiles does not know that her husbands served together. In a move straight out of a lame romantic comedy ( _Bounce_ , according to our self-referential scriptwriters), Wiles fell for his former shipmate's widow and never told her who he was. Gibbs points out that a more believable plotline might include stealing the money, setting Schilz up, killing him, getting away with it and marrying Schilz's wife. Wiles points out that he works the shooting range during the day, does accounting at night, sends Alicia to public school, drives a crappy car and lives in a rented house, none of which would be true if he had a stolen million dollars. Gibbs inquires after the disbursing clerk, Petty Officer Toner. Wiles explains that Toner enlisted to catch an officer.

Gibbs arrives at the _Eisenhower_ and discusses the case with Owens. Owens explains that Wiles and Toner could not have committed the theft; Wiles was at an all-night poker game, and Toner was under figurative lock and key - that tour was the first time females were allowed at sea on extended cruises, and they were (supposedly) carefully watched; Gibbs inquires how many of those females came back pregnant. The answer: quite a few. Kate calls, advises Gibbs that Farnsworth and Lynch were both killed in a ramp strike two years ago. Gibbs says if they were still in the Navy two years ago, they probably weren't involved in the theft. She has traced Toner to Westchester, PA and is on her way there to question Toner.

She arrives at a country club just in time to interrupt Toner's tee-off. She sits down for a nice chat about the expensive country club Toner belongs to and the expensive house she lives in. Toner, who seems to enjoy calling Kate "honey," smirks and provides a winning Ohio Lottery ticket and newspaper article to go with; she claims she won $2 million. Cut: Abby enters Autopsy, shouting "Fore!" and causing Ducky to duck out of reflex. We learn that Abby does _not_ like being called Abigail, and a niblick (it's a golf club with a very specific shape) is not a sex act. We further learn that the unfortunate Lt. Schilz died of a puncture wound to the chest caused by a thin, sharp object, and had odd post-mortem hairline fractures to the pelvis and lower lumbar. Ducky asks Abby to recheck that area of Schilz's uniform for any anomalies.

Gibbs is investigating the disbursing office, and begins to suspect that there may have been something going on between Owens and Toner. Owens denies it, claiming that Toner had something going on with a Petty Officer Ted Martínez, who left the Navy in June of 1994 and was a plane captain on the Tomcat that dropped the pod with Schilz's body. Kate calls to share the information about the lottery with Gibbs; she will call the state lottery board in the morning to confirm the information. The information about Martínez gives him means to stuff Schilz's body into the cargo pod. DiNozzo makes yet another crack about Gibbs' age and - WOO! First headslap ever!

Gibbs walks into Abby's very noisy lab - ("It's the Newlydeads.") - just as Abby pulls an anomalous orange fiber off Schilz's uniform. She has also matched some of the prints on the pod to PO Martínez. One print did not match Martínez; Abby is trying to locate its owner. Gibbs has a suspect; we do not learn who yet. Gibbs comes up into the squadroom and is surprised to find Owens there; Owens wants to help with the investigation. Gibbs sets him to searching for Martínez.

Kate arrives in the office around 14:00 on what seems to be Sunday afternoon. Gibbs and Tony are asleep in their chairs; Owens is still working at 'his' desk. Gibbs wakes to the smell of Kate's coffee, which he subsequently snitches almost out of her hand and drinks half of, much to Kate's horror. Owens has tracked Martínez to Guadalajara, Mexico, before losing the trail. Gibbs brings Abby coffee and asks about his fingerprint. She has nothing good enough to take to court, but she does have info on the fibre: cotton canvas, dyed Orange #7. Not a life preserver; those are made of urethane-coated nylon. Gibbs twigs: it's from an orange mail bag. In the squad room, Kate is verifying Toner's story with the Ohio Lottery; turns out, Toner _did_ hit the lottery - for $37,000.

Owens discovers that Martínez was murdered in a motel in Piedra Negras. Gibbs sends Kate to bring Erin Toner in to HQ. She has to come voluntarily. Kate goes, feeds Toner a story about making a virtual recreation of the theft for Martínez's trial, and attempts to appeal to Toner for the sake of Schilz's daughter receiving benefits due her from the Navy; Toner suggests that they play the lottery. Kate pulls a paper out of her bag, and advises Toner that if she doesn't come to D.C. voluntarily, Kate will sign orders having Toner recalled to active duty as a material witness in the case - "All I gotta do is ink 'em, _honey_ , and your ass is back in the Navy."

Back at HQ, Abby plays a virtual recreation of the theft showing Martínez forcing Schilz to ransack the safe and carry the money to the plane, then killing him and stuffing his body in the pod. Toner is sarcastic about the animation but claims the scenario works for her. Gibbs says it doesn't for him; Schilz would have known Martínez was going to kill him and would have resisted; Martínez would have had to kill him in disbursing. They share the mail-bag epiphany with Toner. A fingerprint match comes up on the second plasma, and he says he'll get back to it. They move forward with their theory, discussing how Martínez would have gotten attention with his body-stuffed mailbag, and Owens remembers how Toner used to turn heads on the ship. Toner tries to leave; Kate grabs her arm and says "Not till the show's over."

Abby puts a second scenario up on the plasma; this one, better animated, shows Martínez dragging the full mailbag while Toner follows behind, flirting with passersby to keep attention away from Martínez. Toner stands, says the animation is better but it isn't evidence. She threatens arrests for assault and unlawful detainment; Gibbs says she's free to go. As she moves to leave, he gets back to the fingerprint match: it's Toner's fingerprint. She asks where they found it: "Mark's uniform? All that proves is that we got it on." Gibbs says no; they found it on the pistol that killed Martínez, which they got from Mexican authorities. They threaten her: a confession, or extradition to Mexico.

That evening, in the squad room, Owens comments that in Hawaii, it takes forever to get anything out of the _federales_. Tony allows that they have the same problem in D.C. Owens is astonished to learn, as they all pile into the elevator, that the fingerprint match was faked. The elevator closes on smiles all around. They all have great smiles.

 _End credits._


	6. Episode 6: High Seas

**S1Ep6 - High Seas**

* * *

We find ourselves in a club, at what looks like a pretty good party. A young man, sweating and perturbed, makes his way through the crowd. His friends wonder where he went, calling him Wilkes. Moments later, in the back of the kitchen, a cook opens the walk-in freezer to discover the young man standing there, still sweating and perturbed but now disturbingly lacking in clothing.

 _Opening credits._

Gibbs is in his basement, working on his boat, with a ball game on the television. His phone rings; he lets the machine get it. The voice on the line announces itself as Stan Burley, admonishing Gibbs to put down whatever he's doing with "that stupid boat" and pick up. Burley goes on to say he needs Gibbs' help with a case on the _Enterprise_ \- and he addresses Gibbs as "Boss." Gibbs answers - "Okay. You got my interest." Burley, who we see on an aircraft carrier (presumably the _USS Enterprise_ ), explains about the young man in the freezer: an arresting-gear operator who "went wacko" on liberty in Rota, Spain. When he was found in the freezer, his body temperature was 106. Gibbs knows that the young man must be a chronic drug user from the symptoms; Burley suspects amphetamines, but the young man's last random drug test - less than three weeks ago - was negative.

At HQ, Tony and Kate have arrived with their luggage, ready to head for the carrier. The group discusses Burley; Abby and Ducky remember him fondly. Ducky asks Kate to take Burley a cricket ball; apparently it's one of the few sports Burley does not play. Tony is clearly upset by all the love being shown to Burley. Gibbs gets off the phone and says their flight is waiting; they exit. Arriving at the plane, Tony explains to Kate that she will get lost. There is a detailed explanation of the labeling system of the bulkheads, by which the ship is navigated. Watch the episode. Tony and Gibbs are clearly yanking her chain about getting lost, though navigating a ship that size is bound to be somewhat confusing at first.

On arrival, the team is met by Stan, who confirms that Wilkes's tox report came back with traces of meth. Tony is made to feel insecure by Burley, probably by accident, but Tony has a rather delicate ego despite his bravado. Kate is sent to interview Petty Officers Niles and Schrewe, Wilkes's buddies; Tony is sent to interview CPO Reyes, their CO. Gibbs asks for deck tapes of Reyes in action; Burley can provide. Kate does, in fact, get lost; she finds her way into a men's head and has an embarrassingly funny conversation with a man at a urinal, who gives her directions. Gibbs goes to sickbay to interview Wilkes, who vehemently insists he does not use drugs, nor anyone on his crew.

Kate finds the deck 5 berthing, is told that Niles has gone up to work out in the hangar bay. We note that she is writing on her hand instead of using her Palm Pilot or a notebook and the idle mind wonders why. She finds Niles, who admits he messed around with drugs in high school but says he doesn't touch the stuff now. He also does not believe Wilkes would do so; Wilkes is 4th-generation Navy. Cut to Gibbs on the ship's bridge; the ship's commander advises Gibbs that the _Enterprise_ is being temporarily rerouted on a search-and-rescue mission. The skipper is very adamant about needing any existing drug problem found and stopped.

We find the flight deck crew in action. It's all very exciting. Reyes is not forthcoming with Tony. He saw nothing unusual, heard nothing unusual. Tony clearly does not buy it. Another plane is coming in for a landing, but before it can, another crew member - Petty Officer Schrewe - goes nuts on the deck, screaming about the flyer calling the meatball. The incoming plane is waved off at the last moment, and Schrewe is taken to sickbay. The doctor says it looks like the same situation - chronic, long-term meth use... but Schrewe's last random drug test was also negative, just like Wilkes. Gibbs requires the doctor to make sure Schrewe is conscious to be interviewed at 1500. Gibbs sends Tony to toss Schrewe's rack and Kate to interview the urinalysis coordinator.

Watching the flight deck tapes, Gibbs and Burley find an anomaly - one crew member virtually dancing around on the deck. The tape was made before the liberty stop at Rota; Burley says the drug supplier could have restocked at Nice or a previous port. Kate interviews the urinalysis coordinator. Urine samples are not tested on board; they are shipped stateside. He explains the testing procedures and some ways that the men may try to beat the test. The coordinator feels it unlikely that two men in six weeks should be able to beat the test, but claims that anything's possible.

Gibbs goes to sickbay to interview PO Schrewe, who also claims he has never done drugs, drunk alcohol or even used tobacco in his life. While Gibbs is interviewing Schrewe, a Code Blue is called on Wilkes, who dies. Gibbs watches this occur. Gibbs, Kate and Tony stand on a balcony watching as a large group of men inspects the flight deck. Gibbs believes Wilkes was killed because he would give up his supplier; Kate points out that the whole situation makes no sense. Tony asks after Burley; Gibbs says he is looking at flight deck footage still, and goes to see how he's doing. Kate tries to make Tony's fragile ego feel better, but the sentiment gets lost in translation. Tony and Kate both have great smiles.

In autopsy, Ducky is working on PO Wilkes's body. Gibbs goes into the conference room where Burley is watching tapes and gives Burley a bagel; in return, Burley shows him footage of Reyes handing his men something. Gibbs wants the footage sent to Abby for enhancement, and wants Kate and Tony to get the air boss's take on Reyes. The air boss takes Kate and Tony to watch Reyes putting his crew through what is either hazing or punishment, and mentions that the crew's performance is 50% above average. Kate, Tony and the Air Boss watch from above; Gibbs watches from a secluded alcove to the side as Reyes drives two men through some kind of jumping push up exercise thing. It looks like a scene from " _Full Metal Jacket_. _"_

Via video conference, Ducky explains how PO Wilkes died - someone put air in his IV drop and the air bubble went into his heart. Instant, unstoppable death, and without question not an accident - the gas bubble in Wilkes's heart was 6% CO2, meaning it was breath. Gibbs questions the medical corpsman in sickbay but there is no evidence he was involved. Burley found a second set of prints on the saline bag; Wilkes's. He killed himself after taking a call from his "very proud retired CPO father."

Abby, via video conference, reports that all the urine she has retested was clean, but there's a twist: Wilkes and Schrewe's urine are exactly the same - they came from the same person. Kate and Tony now know that someone has been swapping out the urine samples. They go to check the record books and find out who it might be. Abby also reports to Gibbs with the new video; she was able to bring the resolution very high and we see that Reyes is providing his men with small white tablets. Gibbs and Burley go to find out what those tablets might be; Reyes claims they are caffeine tablets such as might be purchased over the counter at any convenience store.

Tony runs the tablets through a drug ID kit and gives a mini-lecture about how it works; they turn up clean. Gibbs is sure Reyes is the supplier. We learn that Tony's work history is a bit uncertain; he has a history of changing jobs every eighteen months to two years. It is pointed out that Tony has now been with NCIS a little over two years. We also learn that, prior to coming to NCIS, Burley was a Senator's aide. Gibbs orders the three to toss Reyes's bunk tomorrow morning while Reyes is occupied with flight ops.

While they are searching, the search-and-rescue mission finds the survivors they are looking for. The trio finds nothing obvious, so they turn off the lights and start using the black light to search. Kate finds some sort of residue on the shelf in Reyes's locker. They examine it in the drug testing kit; it is clean. Gibbs points out that there's no reason for caffeine capsule residue to be on the shelf unless the capsules were emptied for some reason. They decide to go to the one person who might still be holding actual meth capsules: PO Niles. Gibbs interviews Niles, who stridently insists that the only pick-me-up he uses is a cup of coffee in the morning and "a couple of these when I'm on deck" - and he provides Gibbs with a bottle of capsules that looks just like the ones Reyes had. These capsules test positive: they are meth.

Gibbs expresses the need to catch Reyes with the evidence in hand. He has a plan. Of course. We cut to the Air Boss's workstation; he is expressing concern about the crew to Reyes, pushing Reyes to dip into his meth stash. We watch Reyes, who apparently thinks he is quite clever and sneaky, go into the urinalysis coordinator's office. We watch a bit of a rescue operation. Reyes comes out a few minutes later, and Burley goes in, followed by Kate and Tony. They confront the urinalysis coordinator, who (as it turns out) was assigned to two previous ships with Reyes on which Reyes's crew had the distinction of best performance rating on the ship. Burley demands Reyes' stash.

Rescue helicopter lands on the carrier; a survivor is helped away. Reyes enters a room; he is met by Niles, looking worried and sweaty, and claiming that he needs something to help get him going. Reyes takes Niles aside and gives him a capsule; Niles asks for a second, and receives it. Niles studies the capsules in his hand for a moment and then, looking betrayed and sad, he hands the capsules over to Gibbs, who has done his ninja sneak-up-on-you trick and is standing behind Reyes.

Reyes knows he's done for, but tries to justify himself by saying he did what he had to do to get his men up to snuff. Gibbs is deeply unimpressed and arrests Reyes.

We finish up with a very touchy-feely scene on deck as the HQ team is leaving. Burley thanks Gibbs for his help and shakes his hand. Gibbs leaves; Kate shakes Burley's hand and follows Gibbs. Tony comments that Gibbs has never shaken his hand; Burley tells Tony that it was two years before Gibbs looked him in the eye, three before he called him by name and four before he got the name right... then says that Gibbs must really like Tony. Tony's fragile ego feels much better; he shakes Burley's hand and follows Gibbs and Kate.

Gibbs warns Kate about the takeoff, which is going to be as rough as the landing was, only backwards. They take off. Gibbs hollers to find out how Kate is doing; she does not respond. He asks Tony, who responds, "She's smiling." (Which is good, because Kate has a great smile.)

 _End credits._


	7. Episode 7: Sub Rosa

**S1Ep7 - Sub Rosa**

* * *

Our scene opens nice and industrial: a man on a forklift is loading pallets of large metal drums onto a truck to be carried away. One of the canisters is knocked over and falls open, revealing that it is full of some kind of acid and what appears to be a mostly-acid-eaten corpse.

 _Opening credits._

We find Tony on the phone speaking to an Agent McGee, a case agent who sounds green and needs advice about what to do with whatever he's got. There is banter. Kate knocks over Gibbs' coffee to the sound of background music that would be more appropriate just as the axe murderer appears behind the blonde co-ed. Gibbs looks like he's going to commit murder, and Tony looks panicked. Kate offers to get him another cup; he refuses, saying the coffee down the hall isn't coffee. As they gear up Tony,looking very concerned, says they are in uncharted waters as he has never seen Gibbs without coffee.

Arriving at Norfolk, we meet the fresh young Agent McGee, who is wearing a surgical mask over his face. He's apparently new at this. (But isn't he _cute_!) Ducky examines the body, discusses the hydrochloric acid, and opines that the body was in the acid less than 24 hours, judging by the damage. Judging by what's left of the clothes, the corpse was an enlisted man; he has a discoloration on his left forearm that Ducky cannot identify, but anyone who knows body art immediately recognizes a tattoo. Gibbs goes to the gate and interviews a gate guard. They know that, with security as tight as it is, the body could not have been smuggled on the base; therefore, he was murdered on base by someone with base clearance. Outside the main gate, a small group of protesters walks in a circle, chanting save-the-whales slogans. That night, Tony makes McGee stay and stand guard over the crime scene before he and Kate leave.

The next morning, Ducky and Abby video conference with the team in Norfolk (including McGee). Ducky confirms cause of death on the body was blunt force trauma to the head. Abby confirms that the mark on the arm is in fact a tattoo - the tail of a dolphin, which tells Gibbs that the dead man was a submariner. Gibbs asks McGee for the number of subs in port; we get some insight into McGee's lack of organization skills as he attempts to locate the list. He comes up with it (finally) and we find that the _USS Philadelphia_ left port this morning. Gibbs wants a copy of the alpha rosters. While this is going on, Ducky is giving a lecture on the history of tattooing over the video conference. Gibbs looks extremely exasperated.

Gibbs, Kate and Tony are walking along the docks, discussing that the body was probably put in the acid to obscure its identity. McGee runs up with the alpha rosters, and tells Gibbs that everyone on all the ships is accounted for - including the _Philadelphia_. Gibbs wants to talk to the submarine squadron commander. McGee advises that he avoid Captain Veitch, who can be "difficult." Gibbs gets right in his face and asks if McGee doesn't think Gibbs can be difficult. McGee is sure Gibbs can, and Gibbs leaves.

Veitch adamantly denies the possibility that someone could slip aboard a sub as an impostor. Gibbs is equally adamant that the possibility is quite real and must be investigated. Gibbs wants the _Philadelphia_ called back, and Veitch refuses; she is on her way to a NATO training mission. Gibbs says that's fine; he wants himself and Kate transported to the sub to conduct their investigation on board. Veitch kicks up a fuss about allowing Kate onto a sub. Gibbs has Kate leave, and then becomes "difficult." Here we learn that Kate has been trained as a profiler. He gets his way and Kate, after a completely unnecessary show of righteous indignation, goes with Gibbs to the sub. She has a great smile.

Gibbs and Kate take a plane to an aircraft carrier, then a helicopter to a frigate, and from the frigate they take a very small boat out to the sub. They explain the situation to Commander Peters. He will cooperate, but the sub is about to commence an Anti-Submarine Warfare exercise in the Atlantic and he is very interested in winning the bet he has with the opposing sub captain. In her lab, Abby works on building a computer model of the dead submariner. She has examined his stomach contents and determined he had a Big Mac and fries as his last meal (and she now knows the composition of McDonalds Special Sauce). Back on the sub, Gibbs and Kate are interviewing their five suspects.

They begin with Petty Officer Drew, who does not know his right from his left and claims to be from South Boston but has no accent. They move on to Petty Officer Thompson, who claims he graduated high school a year late due to mono. After the interviews, Kate and Gibbs have found nothing. Gibbs quizzes the skipper about how the ship could be harmed from the inside; there is a laundry list of ways. The skipper wants them gone; Gibbs says they'll leave when they're done. In her lab, Abby has finished her computer model; he does not look like any of the suspects. She emails the picture to Tony for him to show it around on base in Norfolk. McGee asks Tony what Abby looks like, despite having seen her on the video conference the day prior. Tony tells McGee in no uncertain terms that Abby is out of his league because McGee has no tattoos nor the urge to get one on his buttocks.

On the sub, the sonar has located their target. Gibbs and Kate are certain that the impostor is on this sub; it is the only thing that makes sense. They further deduce that the accomplice must have altered the service record before arriving on the sub; he either worked in personnel or has an accomplice. Gibbs demands that the sub be taken to periscope depth so he can contact Tony. He passes on his suspicion about the service records and sends Tony to investigate.

Ducky comes to Abby with good news and bad news: no DNA match on the body, but Gibbs' theory of altered service records is a good idea; Abby can check crew photos of the five suspects' previous postings. Tony and McGee check out personnel; McGee saves the day by recognizing that if the impostor was working in the personnel office, he would have quit before taking up his fake posting. He learns that Joshua Fox quit recently. On the sub, Gibbs is pushing water down Kate's throat for some reason. Then he sends her to the bathroom to distract the COB, 'unhydrate' is the word he uses, and let him sneak out to question a suspect again. She points out that he could have just asked, and goes, allowing him to escape.

Tony and McGee drive out to Joshua Fox's address and break in to investigate. Gibbs goes to question PO Thompson, who lied about his extra year of high school. Thompson admits he wasn't home sick; he was in juvie. The record was sealed, but Thompson was afraid if the Navy learned of it, he'd never get posted on a sub. Gibbs is caught by the COB and dragged back to the wardroom with Kate. Abby has no matches on the photographs; Ducky gives her a hint by using the word 'absent.' Tony and McGee discover that Fox is an anti-sonar whale-hugger activist and has been developing a tiny canister to deliver sarin gas into a sub's air conditioning system.

Tony gets an emergency message to Gibbs on the sub via low-frequency transmission, advising him of the threat of sarin gas on the ship. The skipper reads it, sends for Gibbs and Kate, has the air conditioning turned off, and orders the ship to surface in an emergency blow. Kate is thrown into Gibbs, who is up against the wall; they hang onto one another for dear life. All the shippers can be heard sighing into their handkerchiefs. The COB comes to get them and they head for the bridge. In her lab, Abby identifies the dead submariner as Petty Officer Drew, who was absent the day the crew picture was taken and had to be in a make-up photo.

On the sub, Drew, who knows he's done for, asks permission for a head call. He leaves as Gibbs and Kate arrive and receive their first message; just then, a second message arrives from Abby identifying Drew as the impostor. The skipper hands it off to Gibbs and Kate, who go looking for Drew. In what may possibly be the fastest suicide ever, Drew has gotten out of his uniform, into his bunk, and suffocated himself with a plastic bag in the space of what might be thirty seconds.

Tony passes the information about Fox and the eco-terrorists to Gibbs. The skipper is heading the sub back to Norfolk; they submerge because subs are faster underwater than on the surface. The ventilation system must remain off due to the continued gas threat; the canister has not been found. Tony returns to D.C. and brings the canister prototype to Abby. She asks about McGee. She also determines that the canister has a bi-metal trigger, which is set off by either extreme heat or extreme cold. This particular canister responds to cold - a temperature of five degrees centigrade, to be exact. On a sub, the air conditioner system or the freezer could be cold enough to trigger this canister.

On the sub, Gibbs is bugged by the lack of sarin gas release . Kate blows it off - "He never had a chance"- but Gibbs doesn't buy it. Why would he commit suicide before he could release it if he knew he was going to die when it was released anyway? The conversation is interrupted by the arrival of ice cream, which might as well be eaten because it will otherwise melt; it had to be taken out of the freezer to make room for the body. This is standard operating procedure on a sub - which the fake Drew would have known! Gibbs goes quickly to the freezer, realizing the fake Drew booby-trapped himself. They open the body bag to find that the gas has already released - inside the corpse. He swallowed the canister before committing suicide. Gibbs and the COB carry the body down to the torpedo room and stuff it into a tube. Kate has run to fill in the skipper, who calls down to the torpedo room with permission to fire. They do so, and live to fight crime another day. And the ice cream is saved also.

Back at HQ, there is banter until McGee arrives with his final report. Tony asks if McGee didn't learn how to use email at MIT. Kate is surprised - "You graduated from MIT?" Gibbs adds, "And Johns Hopkins." McGee is a brain. Then Gibbs asks why McGee is in D.C., and McGee announces that he has a lunch date with Abby. Tony, amused, offers to take McGee to her, reiterating that McGee is not Abby's type. McGee refers back to the "urge" Tony mentioned before (tattooing his buttocks) and states that he took care of that; he went with "Mom." Tony is left speechless as McGee gets in the elevator to go down to the lab.

Kate and Gibbs watch from their desks; Kate wonders what McGee said that left Tony speechless, and Gibbs replies, "He told him he got a tatt on his ass." Gibbs walks away, and we watch Kate watch the elevator, a speculatively sexy look suddenly crossing her face. Clearly, Kate is intrigued.

 _End credits._


	8. Episode 8: Minimum Security

**S1Ep8 - Minimum Security**

* * *

We join a Jerry Springer episode in progress on the side of a rural road. A biker dude and his chick have broken down. She is complaining that she needs to get back to her old man and he assures her he will get her there. A car comes along and the biker dude tries to flag it down, only to have it swerve off the road at the last minute and hit his bike. Infuriated, Biker Dude snatches the driver's side door open, swearing to kill the driver... who is already dead.

 _Opening Credits._

We rejoin our dead motorist as he is being reduced to his component parts on Ducky's autopsy table. An obstruction has been found in the lower intestine. While Gerald opens the intestine to locate the obstruction, Ducky tells an appetizing story about a sumo wrestler's gallstones. Gerald interrupts him to state that the obstruction actually _is_ stones - a number of large, square-cut emeralds. The emeralds perforated the lower digestive tract, causing a number of conditions that led to a painful death. Ducky shares this with Gibbs, but it's not so much the stones as where the stones came from: the deceased smuggled them into the country from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he was employed as a translator at the terrorist detainment facility. The deceased is identified as Petty Officer Second Class Khalil Sa'id, from Egypt, a recent transfer to Gitmo from Bahrain, and Gibbs announces that the team is going to Cuba.

Gibbs comes down to Abby's lab, where she tells him that she has a gemologist coming to look at the emeralds. She is going through all of Sa'id's personal belongings. In them, she has found a number of unmailed letters, all with the same return address: NCIS Special Agent Paula Cassidy. There is also a shirt which smells of a peculiar cologne; Gibbs tells Abby to brand it. On the way into the elevator, he runs into DiNozzo - literally, spilling his coffee in the process. DiNozzo has booked them on a flight to Gitmo; Gibbs says to unbook it, because the Navy is giving them a priority ride today.

On the plane, Tony is waxing ad nauseam about the ride - a $40 million Gulf stream aircraft. Gibbs, who is trying to work, gives Kate the file on Paula Cassidy, who is out of the loop on the case until they find out why Sa'id had her unmailed letters in his luggage. On arrival at Gitmo, they are met by Cassidy herself, who has arranged them a car and one of the nicest houses on base. Cassidy is clearly aware that she is under investigation: her files have been pulled, her interrogations cancelled, and then the top Major Case Team from D.C. has arrived on her turf. She queries Gibbs, who tells her nothing.

They enter their house on base, where Gibbs wants to get to work, but Tony and Kate are too busy fighting over the best bedroom. Gibbs gets on the phone with Abby, who has identified a second scent on Sa'id's clothing - a woman's perfume. Gibbs tells her to brand it. Her gemologist is coming tomorrow morning. He gets off the phone and Tony and Kate want him to mediate between them on who gets the good bedroom; he solves the problem by kicking them both out of it and taking it himself. He has the Wisdom of Solomon, does Gibbs.

The next morning, Tony rolls over to find that he has gained a bedmate in the night: a large iguana. With a scream reminiscent of a terrified virgin, he jumps out of bed, training his gun on the creature. Kate and Gibbs both come running, armed, and we learn that Tony sleeps in the nude. Something Kate finds very amusing. Gibbs is severely unimpressed and exits the room complaining that he needs coffee. In Abby's lab, her gemologist has arrived, bearing gifts: a bottle of Vudu cologne that Abby's mother said was something she could use. He seems dismayed when she sets it on top of her shelf with the myriad of other colognes she has purchased for use in the case. He verifies that the emeralds are real, and high-quality - each emerald is worth at least $20,000. But there's more - judging by the distinct color, these emeralds were mined in Afghanistan.

The FBI translator - Bill Gamal - arrives, bringing all the transcripts of the translations Sa'id did with an inmate called Nasser Al-Jazair. Nasser is a recent arrival from Afghanistan who insists he was picked up by mistake. An interrogation room has been booked for Gibbs for this afternoon. They dive into the files; Gibbs sends Tony out to investigate Cassidy. When he returns, his information is that Cassidy is very popular with the gentlemen on base. She hangs out at a club on base. Gibbs sends Tony to check out the club and observe Cassidy if she is there; Gibbs and Kate go out to Camp Delta to interrogate Nasser.

Tony is discussing a movie with the bartender at the club; he knows nothing about the movie or the actors. Cassidy shows; Tony flirts, but she isn't buying it. Gibbs interrogates Nasser with Gamal translating and Kate watching from observation. At the news that Sa'id is dead, Nasser reacts strongly, and pulls out his prayer beads. Tony watches Cassidy dance, and is outed by the bartender as investigating her. They verbally spar. Tony orders tequila and a beer and asks Cassidy to dance. At Camp Delta, Gibbs gets little information from Nasser. He shows Nasser a picture of the emeralds. Kate knows that Nasser already knows about the emeralds - she can tell from his body language. Nasser requests to be returned to his cell to pray; Gibbs orders him transferred to isolation instead. Nasser flips out, starts yelling in Arabic that Cassidy promised him a transfer to minimum security. Tony and Cassidy are dancing when Gibbs calls, orders Tony to bring Cassidy back to their house.

At the house, Gibbs questions Cassidy about Nasser. His transfer to minimum security was a reward for cooperation. Cassidy demands to know what is going on. Gibbs asks about the letters; Cassidy claims Sa'id was going to mail them for her because mail out of Gitmo is slow. Gibbs wants to open them; Cassidy refuses. Gibbs threatens a court order, tells Cassidy that Sa'id is dead. She finally gives them permission to open the letters. She also offers to let them search her apartment; Gibbs accepts and sends Tony to check Cassidy's apartment and Kate to check Sa'id's. They discover that Sa'id had a key to Cassidy's apartment, but she has no key to his.

Sa'id's hard drive arrives at Abby's lab. Ducky tells Abby that his mother wears Chanel No. 5 a la Marilyn Monroe. At Gitmo, Gamal reports that Nasser is extremely upset about his transfer to isolation. Gibbs cares, we can tell. He is tossing Nasser's cell. He finds nothing. In the house, he video conferences with Abby, who has found that the perfume on Sa'id's clothing is called Escada. As she says this, Tony and Kate return. She also reports that Sa'id deleted more than 20 GB of porn from his laptop before turning it in to Gitmo security. Tony reports that there is a bottle of Escada in Cassidy's apartment. Kate reports that Sa'id's room was completely bare; he did not plan to come back to Gitmo. Tony thinks Sa'id copied Paula's key without her knowledge. Gibbs insinuates Tony is thinking with his libido; incensed, Tony goes to bed. Kate defends Tony; Gibbs tells her that romance between agents never works. The voice of experience?

The next day, Gibbs meets Cassidy and questions her about the key. She says she lost a key; Sa'id could have stolen it, possibly to gain access to her computer. She kept her interrogation notes there, including a note that she had become suspicious of Sa'id's translations, which seemed shorter than the actual conversations taking place. She notes that Sa'id took leave the day after she wrote that. Gibbs tells her about the emeralds and that he thinks they came from Nasser; Cassidy remembers that Nasser claimed of constipation on his arrival at Gitmo and was given a laxative. In the lab, Abby is going through Sa'id's porn, noting that the file sizes are too large to be simple images. She finds Easter eggs hidden in the porn - secret links that hide more information when clicked. In this case, it's communications written in Arabic and diagrams of the camp. She sends them to Gibbs.

Gamal translates the letters; they discuss someone called "Son-in-law" and his movements in the camp. It turns out that one of the prisoners at Gitmo is one of Osama bin Laden's sons-in-law, and that Nasser was actually sent to Gitmo to kill him. Now they need to find this son-in-law, for which all they need to do is transfer Nasser to minimum security and wait to see who he tries to kill. For this, they must tread carefully. They put Cassidy back on Nasser's interrogations (she tells him that Gibbs has gone back to D.C. and been reprimanded); then she moves Nasser back to his old cell, and he is moved from there to minimum security as he was promised.

They set up sharpshooters to mind their target; they believe he will try to do the kill in the exercise yard. Instead, Nasser creates a diversion and slips into another barracks where he finds his target. The security guards are in the yard, so the agents all run for it; Cassidy shoots Nasser in the shoulder before he is able to kill his target. When Tony points out that he would have killed Nasser, Cassidy says no; she didn't want to make him a martyr.

Cassidy flies back to D.C. with the Washington group. Kate indirectly cajoles Tony into going and sitting with Cassidy to try and make her feel better. Kate has a great smile. Tony and Paula make up.

 _End credits._


	9. Episode 9: Marine Down

**S1Ep9 - Marine Down**

* * *

We open at a funeral. Two mourners discuss how the deceased's command will not even tell his widow - Sarah - how he died. We learn the deceased's name - Jim. Just as the grieving widow is located, on a couch and looking lost, the telephone rings. She stands and goes to answer it - and the voice on the other end of the line identifies itself as her husband, insisting he is not dead!

 _Opening credits._

We join our heroes at the firing range, where a number of shooters are practicing. Tony asks Kate if she's nervous; she sarcastically confirms that she's "shaking." A siren sounds; they shoot. Another siren sounds; they stop. Everyone heads down the range to check their targets. We see that the target is a drawing of a man holding a woman hostage. In multiple shots, Kate has only hit her target twice - a double tap in the head - and all her other shots went wide to the man's safe side. Tony, by contrast, has hit his target every time - except for once, when he shot the hostage's ear off. (Tony: "She'll live!") They debate who won. Gibbs ninjas up behind them to check their work and decides to add a little pressure to the situation. He tells Kate to relax her shoulders (complete with a little shoulder-rub that gets all the shippers hot and bothered) and praises Tony on the "tight grouping" of his shots on his target. He then tapes Tony's beloved NCIS cap over the face of the hostage on his target, then does the same on Kate's target using her PDA. When they both protest, he advises them not to miss.

As they head back to their firing positions, Kate and Tony discuss the feasibility of breaking into Gibbs' house and setting his boat on fire. Gibbs gets a call - they've caught a case. He tells them the situation that we, of course, already know. But before they leave, he wants to see how Kate and Tony will shoot under pressure.

Back at HQ, Tony sulkily bequeaths his beloved hat - which now sports two 9mm holes - to Abby, who is appreciative. He has called her from her lab for help; he is trying to get the records on the dead Marine, Major Jim Kidwell, but his computer won't allow it. They find the problem: he doesn't have a high enough security clearance. Abby inquires how the Marine died; that is pretty much the info Tony was looking for.

At the Kidwell home, Gibbs and Kate are interviewing the widow. Gibbs points out that in most cases of this type of crank calling, the prankster turns out to be someone who knows the prankee; usually someone with a grudge. Mrs. Kidwell insists she thinks the voice was her husband's. Gibbs asks permission to put a trace on the phone in case another call comes. The doorbell rings; a woman enters with two children. She is introduced as Lisa Peary, whose husband was in Kidwell's unit and died with him. Mrs. Peary and Mrs. Kidwell feel that as Marine wives they have done their part; they got two sealed caskets and no information from their husbands' command. Now they are demanding answers.

Returning to HQ, Gibbs asks Tony for information; Tony is only able to say that Kidwell was involved in classified stuff; he has lost his security clearance due to a paperwork mix-up. According to NCIS personnel, he's actually dead! Kate tries to get the information; she is blocked as well, and she was cleared for Air Force One with the Secret Service. Gibbs also tries. While he is trying, Kate picks up her PDA. There is a bullet hole right through the center of it. She looks very sad, and yearns wistfully for a warranty that covers bullets.. Gibbs is also blocked from the information. He returns to his desk and receives a phone call. Turns out, NCIS is being blocked from the information they are looking for. The call is from Kidwell and Peary's CO; he wants to meet with them privately on base at Quantico.

The team meets with Lieutenant Colonel Walsh off the record; he is a tall and well-built Caucasian gentleman in his middle forties. He tells the team that Kidwell and Peary were on a classified assignment in Central America and went native as part of their cover; they were murdered by a prostitute who spiked their drinks with formaldehyde over an unpaid bill. Gibbs says he wants the paperwork. Walsh says he will see what he can do and leaves. As the team heads back to their car, Gibbs gets a phone call: it's Abby. She says that the technicians installing the trace at the Kidwells' home located another trace already on the line - one that came from Quantico. Gibbs storms into Lt. Col. Walsh's office. The Colonel's aide says he is in a meeting, which Gibbs barges into, team in tow. He demands to know where Lt. Col. Walsh is. A thin Black man in his early forties stands up and identifies himself as Lt. Col. Walsh.

The real Lt. Col. Walsh has no idea how his men died. He also doesn't know who they were working for. Walsh is an administrator; when his Marines go out of country, they could be working for anyone. Walsh does not know who they were working for; Gibbs and Tony interpret this as "one of the A's: CIA, NSA..." Gibbs wants to know of Walsh stopped to check and see if his men were inside those closed caskets before sending them on to the families.

Back at HQ, Gibbs and Morrow discuss the case. Gibbs does not buy the official story; he knows that either Kidwell and Peary died doing something they shouldn't have been doing, or Kidwell really did make that phone call. He asks Morrow for help getting into the sealed records; Morrow will see what he can do.

In Abby's lab, Kate and Tony are arguing over a program Abby is running which - if done properly - can generate an image of the phony Col. Walsh. Gibbs wants Tony to pull the dead Marines' LES's (Leave and Earnings Statements); Kate volunteers to do that, citing the very shaky excuse that Tony has a better handle on the program. Gibbs allows it, and Kate pulls Tony into the next room to find out what LES's are and how to get them. She vanishes upstairs. While she is on the telephone, she breaks out her trusty sketch pad and pencil. When she returns to the lab, she finds the rest of her team laboring over the computer to produce an image of... Illya Kuryakin. No, wait, that's a young Ducky, that's who that is. And since apparently Kate is the only person doing any work today, she produces her sketch of the fake colonel. Tony grabs her sketch book and flips through it, finding Kate's unflattering caricatures of himself drooling over something in a skirt and Abby as a vampire bat. Predictably, Abby falls in love with the one of herself and demands to be allowed to frame it and hang it up.

Gibbs wants the LES's in twelve hours; he wants Abby to run the fake colonel's picture through the military databases. Leaving his trustworthy team to do the legwork, he visits Maj. Kidwell's grave, and is photographed without his knowledge.

The next morning, Gibbs arrives at HQ at the same time as Mrs. Kidwell, who reports that there was another phone call, this one to Maj. Kidwell's friend, Maj. O'Donnell, who has the call on tape because it came to his answering machine. Abby runs the tape against voice-recognition software, comparing the voice on the machine to Maj. Kidwell's voice from some old home movies. A tiresome explanation ensues, because Abby needs lines and we need technical details, but it's always fun to listen to her talk about things we don't understand, so we put up with it about as long as Gibbs does. Long and short: it's definitely Kidwell on the phone.

Kidwell's casket is exhumed and brought to Autopsy. The casket is opened with O'Donnell there as a witness. He confirms that the extremely fresh body in the casket is in fact Kidwell.

Kate and Tony discuss the case in the squad room. They have no explanation. Gibbs isn't through with the case; they keep working. Ducky begins his autopsy. He is going to have a hard time determining time of death; the body has already been professionally embalmed. Cause of death is another question. The official cause (line of duty) usually implies injuries received in combat; aside from minimal bruising at the wrists, Maj. Kidwell is unhurt. Except for being dead, of course. There's also no way to tell if he's been poisoned because there's no blood left in his body due to being embalmed.

Upstairs, Kate has the LES's in order and ready to be examined. Gibbs thoughtfully informs us that the reason he wants them is because they will tell where Kidwell was stationed and who was paying him. Useful information. He walks away; rounding a corner, we see him receive a phone call. It is Mrs. Peary, who does not appreciate being interrogated by Special Agent DiNozzo, who she says is with her now at the playground where she is airing out her children. Gibbs looks over the wall and sees DiNozzo standing at his desk, on the telephone. Apparently, Tony has either mastered the art of being in two places at once, or something hinky is happening. Gibbs asks Mrs. Peary to keep "DiNozzo" there, and heads for her location.

In autopsy, Ducky finds that the embalming incision in Maj. Kidwell's neck has been stuffed with newspaper. He sends Gerald with it to Abby, and returns to inspecting the incision. With a start, he jumps away from the body, horrified, then announces that he knows how Kidwell died.

At the playground, Gibbs runs up to Mrs. Peary, but the fake DiNozzo is gone. He shows Mrs. Peary Kate's sketch; she identifies him as the fake DiNozzo. He finds out what direction the man took and sends Mrs. Peary home. Then he chases the man. He locates him on a side street, chases him, and shoots at him as he enters a bulletproof sedan and drives away.

Back at HQ, Tony and Kate are working up the information from the LES. We learn here that Tony is a two-fingered typist. Gibbs returns, tells Kate and Tony about his encounter. They tell him that they have learned that Kidwell and Peary were transferred to a new unit in September, but they don't have the information on it because its number wasn't in the Marine Corps database. Gibbs advises them that it was definitely CIA on account of the economy-class armored car. They head down to Autopsy, where Ducky advises them that the dearly departed was embalmed alive. In Abby's lab, she has processed the paper in Kidwell's neck, which was definitely newspaper - dated December 12, 2003. The funeral when the call came in was December 8; the current date is December 14.

In the squad room, plans are made to examine Peary's grave using ground-penetrating radar. We move to the cemetery, half-expecting Buffy Summers to come running past at any moment chasing something with fangs. The radar is calibrated using the grave of Miss Agatha O'Leary and her poodle, Fluffy. Then it is turned on the grave of Maj. Peary, revealing that the casket contains what appear to be cinder blocks.

In her lab, Abby has identified the identity thief; his name is Jack Canton, and he is definitely CIA. Abby got his identity from the Marine detachment at the Colombian embassy. Despite the lateness of the hour - 3 a.m. - Gibbs sets Kate and Tony to find out where the newspaper was published that was found inside Kidwell. He and Morrow get the director of the CIA out of bed and demand answers. It turns out that Kidwell and Peary were kidnapped by Colombian insurgents. The CIA paid the ransom - $2 million - but the insurgents killed the Marines anyway. It further seems that Canton was the agent responsible for paying the ransom. It looks like he kept the money for himself and left the Marines to die. Canton is now on his way back to Colombia. The CIA director insists he will handle this in-house. After the call is over, Morrow tells Gibbs to go get their Marine.

The team takes a priority ride to Colombia - slung between pallets. It doesn't look pleasant. Tony reads a magazine and eats a hamburger; Gibbs sleeps and Kate is violently motion-sick. Gibbs wakes when they are about half an hour out of Colombia. Kate learns that there is no bathroom on a cargo plane; women everywhere shudder in sympathy when Gibbs offers her a plastic bag and the relative privacy of "if you want some privacy, you can probably go down behind those boxes there."

On arrival, the team meets with Canton's partner, Gonzales, who says they've lost Canton; they tracked him to an insurgent camp, but he was gone by the time they got there. The newspaper came from a town called Bosa, which Gonzales confirms is about ten miles away. They trek to Bosa, where there is apparently only one funeral home, which is currently in use seeing an elderly lady off on her final journey. Canton's car is parked out front. The team moves in. Through a small window, Gibbs sees Peary on a table, his own live embalming about to begin. He shoots the embalmer. They storm the funeral home. Tony and Gonzales come in from the front; Kate and Gibbs come in through the back.

As they make their way in, Tony is shot at from around a corner, then a grenade is thrown into the hall where Gibbs and Kate are. They manage to get back alive, but Gibbs is wounded in his right shoulder by the explosion. From around the corner, Canton speaks: he will shoot Peary if Gibbs doesn't come around the corner unarmed. Gonzales steps forward instead, trying to talk to his partner; Canton shoots him in the heart.

Gibbs tells Kate quietly to relax her shoulders, tosses his weapon and comes around the corner. His arm is dripping blood from his shoulder wound. He speaks with Canton, who taunts him while holding Peary hostage. Kate and Tony signal one another silently, then burst around the corner, shooting.

The scene changes to a suburban yard, decorated very tacky for Christmas. The two Peary children are kicking a soccer ball in the front yard under their mother's watchful eye when a car drives up. They stop playing to watch as Tony, Kate and Gibbs (whose right arm is in a sling) get out of the car, followed by Major Peary. There is a tearful reunion which is all filmed from the left side. The camera rounds to the right, and we see that someone has shot Maj. Peary's right ear off.

On the sidewalk, Kate and Tony debate who actually shot the Major's ear off. They have just decided to ask Gibbs when the Mysterious Redhead in the silver Beemer shows up. Gibbs hops in, kisses her cheek and, with sexy Bond-ish music in the background, the Beemer drives off, leaving us all to wonder just exactly who drives around with the top down in Virginia in winter.

 _End credits._


	10. Episode 10: Left for Dead

**S1Ep10 - Left for Dead**

* * *

The scene opens on a snowy road; a car is making its way through a wooded area. The camera pans through the wooded area and we watch a woman in a dress dig herself out of a shallow grave. Bleeding from a head wound, she makes her way up to the road and stops the next car to come by. She doesn't know her name, but she does know that there is a bomb on a Navy ship and people are going to die.

 _Opening credits._

We join Gibbs in his basement. This morning he is not working on his boat; he is asleep under its shell. The television blares the opening of the U.S. Farm Report as the telephone rings. It is Tony, calling from the office at 05:20. He's slept there all night; the boiler in his apartment building blew, so he has neither heat nor electricity and will not for a month. He teases Gibbs about falling asleep working on the boat. Gibbs heats his coffee in a very unsanitary manner, if not a typically male one. Tony fills Gibbs in on what we've already seen. Gibbs has Tony send Kate to the hospital. Tony leads in to asking if he can stay with Gibbs. Gibbs flatly refuses. Indications are that things didn't go well at all the last time Tony stayed with Gibbs. Who's surprised? Talk about the Odd Couple!

At the snowy crime scene, Ducky is taking pictures. He gives Gibbs a lecture about why graves are dug six feet deep. We learn that this grave was quite shallow and apparently hastily dug; the grave digger also left no tracks. Gibbs sends Ducky out to check if there are any more bodies. At the hospital, Kate learns about amnesia from a doctor who rambles in a way that is not nearly as cool as Ducky. We learn that our Jane Doe suffered blunt force trauma to the head and had some petechial (pinpoint) hemorrhaging on her eyelids which indicate suffocation (probably from being buried alive). Kate gets her first look at Jane Doe, who is lying on a gurney looking sad and pathetic with a bandage wrapped around her head. There is discussion of the amnesia and we learn that Jane Doe's memory may come back in a flash or may come back slowly over a period of days or weeks. We watch as Jane Doe is hustled into a wheelchair and taken past Kate into the bowels of the hospital, for some neurological tests. She gives Kate some puppy-dog eyes as she passes.

Back at the crime scene, Gibbs is on the phone with Kate, who wants to put Jane Doe's picture on TV to find someone who knows her and can help her. Gibbs, who is looking at things more from the perspective of finding a culprit, says no. He wants the gravedigger to think Jane Doe is dead. Gibbs is clearly unimpressed with Kate's humanitarian standpoint. He is busy digging up the dirt of the shallow grave and running it through a soil sifter, looking for clues. Thus far, he has found an arrowhead and a shark's tooth, which he gives to Ducky, who has not found any more bodies. We learn how a shark's tooth could get into Rock Creek Park, and then Ducky wants to notify ARPA. Gibbs will do so, after he finishes processing. Ducky points out that the fine for disturbing an archaeological site is $250,000, but Gibbs points out in return that it was a crime scene first. We think Gibbs' time line may be a bit off, but he's in charge. (And he's hot, so who wants to argue?) Ducky starts telling another story.

At the hospital, Kate is interviewing Jane Doe and taking her fingerprints. Jane Doe is a very sweetly pathetic sort. Kate wants Jane Doe's clothes to run through forensics looking for explosive residue. Kate begins to take fingerprints; Jane Doe believes she may have done this before. Kate says this is good news; Jane will be in a database somewhere. Jane pessimistically points out that it might be a terrorist list. Kate points out that knowing a bomb is there doesn't mean Jane placed it. The crucifix around Kate's neck makes Jane have a flashback of being in a church.

Back at the crime scene again, Ducky is telling another story. Tony is listening while Gibbs actually works. He segues into trying to ask Ducky if he can stay at his place, and Ducky neatly blocks that line of inquiry. Gibbs finds a key in the dirt he's sifting through. It goes back to the lab and Abby, who reports that it is a magnetized key to open a magnetic lock, a hotel room or any high-security lock. Kate arrives inquiring about the fingerprints and clothing. Abby has no hits on the prints yet but the gas chromatograph is still running on the clothing. Gibbs asks about the interview; we learn that Kate has learned nothing of use but is definitely bonded with Jane. The gas chromatograph reports that there are definitely traces of high-grade explosives on her clothing.

In the hospital, Jane Doe now believes she is a terrorist. She goes on about strawberries and blueberries and Kate tries to be nice to her. Kate points out that the residue could have come from a legitimate occupation. The woman replies skeptically that maybe she is an _explosiverhersteller_ which is apparently German for bomb-maker. This is a clue! Perhaps Jane works for a German firm out of D.C. This only makes Jane believe more strongly that she has placed a bomb on a ship; Kate points out that maybe Jane knows who _did_ put the bomb there and that person tried to kill her. "Why do you believe in me?" Jane asks. (We all wonder the same thing, Jane.) Kate replies, "Why do you like blueberries?"

Outside the room, the doctor refuses to release Jane as long as she doesn't know her name, though she's in no medical danger. Kate and Jane come around the corner with the miraculous news that Jane has remembered who she is - her name is 'Maureen Ingalls' and she lives in Alexandria. Kate will take Maureen into protective custody at her home. The doctor takes Maureen to get a set of scrubs since she has no clothing. Gibbs, who knows better, asks who Maureen Ingalls is; we learn that she is Kate's cousin. In the conversation that follows, Kate goes very mama-bear over Jane Doe. Gibbs allows it, but clearly has reservations.

In the lab, Abby has matched the key to a system manufactured for a hotel. Tony notes tiny writing on the key's surface. It reads "The Apartment" when magnified, etched by a micro-laser. At Kate's extremely nice apartment (which must cost a pretty penny for a place that size in D.C., and we all begin to wonder how much she makes), Jane knows that the ship in question was not a carrier or a submarine. Kate notes that there are no active battleships, so the ship must be either a cruiser or a destroyer. Jane is sure it's one or the other and suggests searching them. Kate points out that there are 18 destroyers and 7 cruisers in Norfolk alone.

In the lab, Abby has found that there are only three hotels in the D.C. area that use the magnetic keys. The first one is the Jackson Hotel (whose number Gibbs knows off the top of his head). They begin calling hotels. Kate and Jane are looking over a list of ship names, hoping one will jog Jane's memory. We learn that Navy cruisers are named after famous battles and the destroyers are named after Navy heroes. (Useful the next time anyone wants to play Trivial Pursuit, yes?) Jane finagles her way into getting Kate to take her out to dinner. She's a bit on the melodramatic side. Most of us would just say we could use a sandwich, but Jane is weak from hunger. They get coats; the one Kate gives Jane is floral and fairly ugly. But Jane thinks she has a coat like this. Kate points out that it is a designer coat carried by only a few stores in the area.

In the lab, we learn that none of the hotels micro-etch their keys, but that the Jackson takes permanent residents. Tony pushes his luck wanting to know how Gibbs knows so much about the Jackson; Gibbs finally breaks and tells him that his ex-wife lives and Jane go shopping, but Jane doesn't remember anything until a big bald guy wanders into a women's apparel shop. Jane has a flashback to the man who attacked her, who was apparently also big and bald. Gibbs and Tony are investigating the room at the Jackson that matches the magnetic key. The key opens the door; when they enter, they find the big bald guy from Jane's flashback lying dead on the floor of a head wound... and surrounded by loose cash.

There is negotiation with the D.C. Metro detective who comes to investigate; Gibbs wants to keep the investigation as it is related to Jane Doe and the possible bomb. Ducky embarrasses the Metro ME into giving up the body. The corpse has been dead at least eighteen hours. Tony begins checking the room for bloodstains on whatever object might be the murder weapon; it turns out to have been a bust of JFK.

Kate and Jane go for dinner someplace nice. Kate throws the name of the dead man - Walter Richter - at Jane; she has no reaction. She does have a flashback of being at a similar restaurant all alone and sad and pathetic. In the lab, Abby has found a partial palm print on the bust of JFK. There's not enough to use for identification, though. However, on the good news side of things, a print lifted off the desk in the hotel room belongs to Jane Doe. In Autopsy, Ducky places the time of death of the victim at least 44 hours ago. It's a safe bet that the dead man is not the grave digger.

Tony finds good news in the background on the dead man; Richter was the head of security for a German firm called BFF, which makes bomb-detecting devices for the U.S. Navy. At the BFF headquarters, Gibbs and Tony question Richter's boss, a German fellow called Dr. Brauer. Brauer was at the hotel suite Friday, entertaining some business associates from Berlin. The hotel suite is registered in Richter's name to keep it secret from any competitors. Tony inquires about their _explosiverhersteller_ , who Brauer identifies as Suzanne McNeil.

Brauer asks if Suzanne is dead; they do not answer, instead asking what Suzanne does. She formulates explosives for BFF's tests. He asks again to be told that Suzanne is not dead; Tony answers that Suzanne is not dead. Brauer freezes; his hands tremble. Clearly something is not right; Tony and Gibbs both comment. Brauer plays it off as a natural response due to Gibbs' line of questioning. He shows Gibbs and Tony a picture of McNeil - she is Jane Doe.

Back at HQ, Kate takes Suzanne to see Richter's body. Suzanne has a flashback to Richter giving her an envelope full of cash - six months severance, and he advises she takes it. She remembers whacking Richter with the JFK bust. She tells Kate that she remembers nothing, and leaves quickly.

At BBF HQ, Gibbs is on the phone with Kate. He has emailed Kate Suzanne's personnel file, and has some ideas about why Brauer might want her dead. Kate calls out to Suzanne, who has her back to Kate; she reacts, but only with her face and eyes, carefully controlling her body. She remembers; we know she remembers.

Tony has learned that the new bomb-sniffer BFF is working on isn't working as well as it should. It is being tested in a lab at BFF. Brauer shows them to the lab. Kate gives Suzanne her personnel file to try and jog her memory, and points out to the "sad and lonely woman" that there is still time for a husband and kids. Suzanne points out in a very jaded manner that the good ones are all married. Tony and Gibbs question Brauer about his relationship to Suzanne; he points out that he is happily married. Gibbs makes a reference to the movie "The Apartment". Bauer denies having an affair with Suzanne. In the lab, we find that the tests being run on the bomb-sniffing equipment are done on a mock-up of the interior of a Navy ship.

At HQ, Suzanne is still "trying to remember." Kate tells her to give it time; Suzanne points out that she may not have it since someone tried to kill her and someone bashed in Richter's head. She asks Kate to take her to her job, let her sit at her desk and try to remember there, in familiar surroundings. Kate falls for it. Gibbs and Tony watch a test of the bomb-sniffer. We get more information about Suzanne's job - her job is to make explosives that the bomb sniffer can't detect, to push its boundaries and make it better. Bomb maker - 1; sniffer - 0.

Kate does something silly; she lets Suzanne go to her desk alone, and waits in the lobby, where she meets up with Gibbs, Tony and Brauer. Suzanne returns to the lobby. She flashes back to the church; Brauer was at the church. She flashes back to the restaurant; Brauer was there with his wife. She flashes back to struggling with Brauer and then falling, hitting her head on a chair leg. She approaches and greets Brauer as though she does not know him. Gibbs points out that this is good and bad; bad because she can't give Brauer the explosive formula and good because she can't pin her attempted murder on Brauer. They go apart to speak privately.

Suddenly Kate's brain begins to function as she watches the conversation. Everyone cheers. Suzanne accuses Brauer of not having the guts to leave his wife but he could bury Suzanne. She warns him to keep a pleasant face; he wouldn't want the agents to suspect anything. Gibbs and Tony discuss the lack of possibility of Tony coming to stay with Gibbs. Kate is actually thinking for the first time all day. Brauer points out to Suzanne that what happened in the office was an accident; she was out of control. He offers her anything. She wants a wedding ring. He says he'll give it to her; he'll divorce his wife and marry Suzanne. She doesn't buy it; he didn't even have the guts to dump her in person - that's what Walter was for.

It occurs to Kate that Suzanne knew how Richter died without being told and without seeing the wound. _Finally._ Suzanne stands up with a small round object in her hand - a highly volatile explosive compound. Brauer jumps up, screaming that she has a bomb. Suzanne turns and says "Sorry, Kate" before dropping it. The whole world goes to hell.

Outside, later, the medics are patching up Kate, who was closest to the explosion and got pretty banged up. She also looks like someone just kicked her puppy in the head and pulled her braids. Tony wants to help make her feel better; Gibbs knows this is not possible. Kate will have to work through it on her own. Tony walks away; Gibbs calls after him to let him know he can stay at Gibbs' place. Gibbs and Kate share a significant eye contact across the busy parking lot.

 _End credits._


	11. Episode 11: Eye Spy

**S1Ep11 - Eye Spy**

* * *

We join two idiots in the progress of violating several federal laws. It seems that the one in charge of the satellite was repositioning from Cuba up to Quebec and glitched over Little Creek Naval Base at just the right moment to spot a woman sunbathing nude on the beach. Unfortunately as they are watching, the woman sees something unusual - someone has pulled up onto the beach in an SUV - and she gets up to run away. They zoom out to see what is going on, and they watch in pixels as the man who pulled up on the beach is murdered.

 _Opening credits.  
_  
Tony enters from the elevator, munching on a doughnut. He offers one to Kate, who refuses, saying she likes keeping her belt notched exactly where it is. (She also sounds a little hoarse; Caitlin seems to have a cold.) There is brief discussion of Tony's weight, about which he seems to be a wee bit sensitive. Gibbs comes in during this conversation and smirks a little bit (which is very nice), then gets a call. We watch Tony tighten his belt to the point that he can't breathe. Gibbs hangs up and announces a murder at Little Creek. Red-faced from the lack of air, Tony follows Gibbs out as Kate, calling Ducky, grins at him. Kate's got a great smile.

The team is approaching the body across a familiar stretch of beach. A fellow in fatigues tells Gibbs that he located the body after an anonymous tip was called in to base security. The victim has been identified as . Thomas Egan. As they approach the body, Tony points out that the body has not been robbed; he is still wearing an expensive Tag Heuer watch. Kate begins taking crime scene photos. The fellow in fatigues reports to Gibbs that Egan was attached as a technical adviser to SideScan, a civilian contractor on the base. He knows nothing else as the SideScan work is classified.

Things get busy when Ducky realizes the tide is rising; the body must be kept dry in order to preserve evidence. Everyone kicks it into high gear. Gibbs and Tony begin taking measurements as quickly as possible; Kate takes more photographs. Measurements are taken; Kate notes that Egan's dive knife is missing. A wave comes up; Tony self-sacrificially tosses himself between the very cold water and the body, successfully keeping the body mostly dry but soaking himself in the process. Did we mention it's January in Virginia? Brr.

At the SideScan offices, Egan's co-workers are shocked and appalled to learn that he is dead. They last saw him early that morning as he was heading out to do some underwater tests on a piece of equipment. The man (Overmeier) asks if they found a device with Egan's body. Turns out, Egan was working on a hand held sonar gun. Overmeier's company developed the gun; Egan and the woman (Cmdr. Tyler) were evaluating it. Gibbs seizes Egan's computer and anything else he thinks they might need. This does not make Tyler or Overmeier happy.

At the Little Creek Quarterdeck, Tony ( _dressed fashionably in Ducky's spare jumpsuit which is at least two sizes too small and several inches too short - why hasn't his voice gone up an octave?_ ) is obtaining the information about where the anonymous tip came from. The call came in at 09:32, no name, but the voice was male and nervous. The caller ID on the call was blocked. Tony goes to McGee, who hacks the database to find out who made the phone call. While McGee works, we learn that he is still seeing Abby occasionally. McGee locates the number; for some reason there is an asterisk after it. Tony tells him to find out why.

Kate and Gibbs go to Egan's house to interview his wife. Gibbs can't read the small print on Kate's PDA. Lieutenant (Mrs.) Egan answers the door, looking all sad and crying. Lt. Egan states that she was gone all weekend to Camp Lejeune for a seminar; when she arrived home, the notification detail was at her house to tell her that her husband was dead. She last spoke to her husband around 10pm the previous night, and was unaware that he was going diving that morning. However, as a SEAL, it was not unusual for him to go diving many times in the week. She also did not know what his project was; the Lt. Cmdr. was very strict about classified information.

In Autopsy, Gerald is going to open the body bag when it moves. He jumps back. Ducky is exasperated with him until he, too, sees the body bag move. They open it carefully; a crab jumps out.

Kate and Gibbs park out on a strip of asphalt somewhere. They discuss the possibility that Egan's death is espionage. Tony arrives and shares that the anonymous tip came from a restricted phone in Langley, VA; which leads Gibbs to believe it's the CIA.

Back at HQ, Kate enters with a computer tower. Tony, dressed again in his own clothing ( _thank God_ ), is eating a "nutrition" bar. Kate mocks him for it, pointing out that it's not nearly as healthy as he thinks it is. She reads the ingredients, which make us all want a banana, and Abby arrives for Egan's computer. Abby asks after Gibbs but he is in with Director Morrow, trying to get a meeting with the CIA to find out about the anonymous tip. Time of death was established as 09:30, the tip came in at 9:32, and Langley is over 200 miles from Little Creek. Abby points out that this is impossible; Gibbs, who has arrived to retrieve his coat, rebuts that it's not impossible if someone from the CIA was watching on a high-definition satellite.

Gibbs meets privately with someone from the CIA (Roper), who insists that this could not have happened. Gibbs points out everything he has - dead Egan, missing classified prototype, and anonymous phone call originating from the CIA building. Roper does not deny the capability, but points out that domestic spying, such as what this points to, is illegal. Gibbs points out that they both work for the same government, and politely (for Gibbs) asks for Roper's help. Roper refuses. Gibbs takes another route - Abby has a boytoy who works at NASA and can help them track down their satellite user. Great insight into Abby's deeply playful nature. Ashton locates the building and office from which the satellite was controlled that saw the murder.

That evening, Kate and Gibbs wait on the street in front of the building where the young satellite controller (Worth) lives, waiting for him to come home. There is slightly flirty banter that makes the shippers sigh. Kate has a great laugh. Worth arrives home; they approach. Worth doesn't want to talk; he's on administrative leave and under investigation for his unauthorized activities with the satellite. Gibbs offers to go to bat for Worth if Worth tells him what he saw. Worth admits he was watching the nude sunbather when the murder took place and couldn't see the murderer. He tells Gibbs that all satellite transmissions are recorded on a hard drive at Langley; if he could access his computer, he could show Gibbs exactly what he saw. Gibbs gets on the phone with Roper and threatens to have Worth talk to a Congressional oversight committee if Roper doesn't let them see the satellite shots.

In Autopsy, Ducky determines cause of death to have been that Egan was stabbed with his own dive knife, and judging by the angle of the thrust, the assailant was probably left-handed. Abby is working on Egan's computer; it was password-protected and took some time to get in. Tony, Gibbs and Kate arrive to find out what she has. Gibbs has brought a copy of the satellite shots for Abby to enhance. Abby reports that Egan's notes indicate he was hinky about the reliability of the sonar device. On the beach, divers are searching for the sonar device.

Abby is unable to clear the picture up enough to make an ID. Tony suggests looking for Polar Tanning Girl instead; perhaps she saw something. Abby prints him a picture of the girl's face. Kate is to stay with Abby and go over Egan's files to learn about the device. Ducky comes to tell Gibbs about the assailant being left-handed. Ducky also found traces of a female's DNA on Egan's body - meaning that Egan was probably having an affair with someone, since his wife was gone all weekend. Gibbs goes back to the Egans' home to question Egan's wife. He asks questions about SideScan and Egan's project. He asks about how much time Egan spent at work; indications are that Lt. (Mrs.) Egan seems to know about the affair. She checks her watch and we note that she wears it on her right wrist, as a left-handed person might.

In the Little Creek Base Gym, Tony watches women work out. _(Typical Tony_.) He shows the photo to the gym manager, who says that it could be Gina, who comes in every day around noon. Since it is 11:40, Tony decides to wait. Also typical of Tony, he has to play with the equipment while he does so. Gibbs meets with Cmdr. Tyler privately to inquire about the device. Tyler admits Egan did not think the sonar gun's range was as good as promised; if he turned out to be correct, the Navy would not purchase the gun from SideScan and Overmeier would lose a lot of money. If the prototype is not found, SideScan would get an extension, giving them time to correct the flaws. He tosses out the suspicion of Egan's affair; Tyler admits she and Egan have been seeing one another for months. She, too, checks her watch; she wears it on the left wrist, as a right-handed person would. ( _Some lefties also wear their watches on their left-wrists as well._ )

By the time Gina gets to the gym, Tony is out of his shirt and jacket and just in his undershirt, so when he approaches her, she thinks he's hitting on her and blows him off. Tony gets his ID and comes back, opening the interview. At SideScan, Kate and Gibbs are pretty much cleaning out the office and all the files. Gibbs confronts Overmeier about his suspicions; Overmeier is blustery and full of himself. Gibbs points out that Egan's death buys Overmeier time; Overmeier blusters some more. Gibbs has Overmeier sign a receipt for his files; we see that Overmeier is left-handed. Outside, Gibbs and Kate discuss Overmeier's left-handedness, and Kate points out that he and Tyler could be in it together. Gibbs says they could in a way that indicates he doesn't think they are. He gets a call from Tony reporting that Gina is in fact the polar tanner. Gina reports that she thought Egan was alone at first, but when she glanced back, she saw him arguing with a woman who was definitely military.

Returning to HQ, we get the rundown from Kate and Tony. Egan's killer was a woman (eliminating Overmeier) and left-handed (eliminating Tyler). Gibbs points out that perhaps they followed the missing prototype too hard; it's possible the murder had nothing to do with that. They begin to examine Lt. (Mrs.) Egan instead, who had a motive as she knew her husband was having an affair. Kate points out that Lt. (Mrs.) Egan has an alibi. Gibbs points out that she plays golf left-handed; he saw the clubs. They go back to the house to question her again.

Gibbs has an unusual method of questioning. He tells Lt. (Mrs.) Egan that he thinks Egan was killed over flaws in the SideScan sonar prototype thing. He and Kate further state that they need the prototype to build a case against Lauren Tyler. Kate asks about the affair; Lt. (Mrs.) Egan pretends to be all surprised. She continues to insist that he never talked to her about the project. She asks why they think Egan was killed. Gibbs straight-up lies; he tells her that he thinks Overmeier bribed Egan and Tyler to keep quiet about the sonar gun's flaws, and that Tyler killed Egan when Egan refused the bribe. He stresses the need to find the prototype as conclusive proof that Tyler was involved in the murder.

Outside, Kate and Gibbs discuss their little play-act. Gibbs thinks Lt. (Mrs.) Egan took the bait. Kate hopes they are right, because her bleeding heart would feel bad if they put an innocent woman through that. Gibbs calls Abby and has her get back in touch with Ashton for some more surveillance.

There is discussion in MTAC - Ashton admits to Abby that the satellite he is using is technically down for maintenance. They are watching the Egans' home. Lt. (Mrs.) Egan leaves in a big hurry. Abby redirects the satellite feed to the computer in the car where Kate, Tony and Gibbs are waiting. They get some separation and then head out in pursuit. Lt. (Mrs.) Egan leaves the base and heads south. Gibbs follows. In the midst of pursuit, the satellite signal is lost; turns out the satellite was down for maintenance for a reason. Ashton gets it back a few moments later and she is re-located driving into the woods.

We watch her get out of her car and hurry over to a place marked with some rocks. Pushing the rocks aside, she pulls out the sonar gun and the bloody dive knife. Gibbs' voice offers her a hand, and she gasps, turning: standing above her on a slight ridge like Charlie's Angels are our Intrepid Team, catching her in the act.

Back at HQ Tony comes in with Ducky's spare jumpsuit in a dry-cleaner's bag. He is late because he had to go pick it up. Gibbs is not pleased; turns out Tony's phone has been ringing off the hook. Gina apparently decided Tony was cute after all and has been calling nonstop. Tony's not interested; she's not attractive enough for him. Tony's version of letting her down easy is just not answering her calls. Gibbs warns him to handle the situation. There is banter regarding Gibbs getting whacked on the head with a golf club, and Gibbs has a great smile.

 _End credits._


	12. Episode 12: My Other Left Foot

**S1Ep12 - My Other Left Foot**

* * *

As the episode begins, we watch a truck drive up to an empty building in the middle of the night. A man gets out dressed for dumpster diving and proceeds to do just that. He finds a boot in good condition and pulls it out - only to find that it still contains the foot and lower leg it belongs to. With a gasp, he throws it.

 _Opening credits._

As we join the team, they are just beginning their workday. Tony inquires how Kate's date last night went; we find that he has been eavesdropping on her when she is on the phone. Kate's date was cancelled on account of surgery - he wasn't having it, he was performing it. Abby pops in and asks about the date as well; she just gets a sarcastic look. Tony fills her in; they agree that surgery is a pretty good date-cancelling excuse.

Gibbs comes in with the familiar order to "grab your gear" - they are going to Clarksburg, WV to see the leg. Kate inquires why they are going to West Virginia to see a leg; Gibbs says it belongs to a Marine. Closeup on the leg - it's got a Semper Fi tattoo on it. First clue. It's also got a Marine Corps emblem on the boot heel. Second clue.

The local LEOs are about as down-home as you can get, cracking jokes about how the leg landed on a set of stairs as though it was going up them. Gibbs is not amused. Ducky reports the limb was severed postmortem, but can't establish a time of death due to the lack of, well, a body.

Kate, taking crime scene photos, notices a seed wedged in the sole of the boot. Ducky tries to take off to an antique store and is pressed for a time by Gibbs. He is willing to commit that the limb has been dead less than twenty-four hours. Gibbs, grinning, lets Ducky go.

Gibbs interviews the junk dealer, who spits tobacco juice somewhere in the vicinity of Gibbs' shoes, then jumps into the dumpster to check for more evidence. Tony and Kate begin a discussion of tattoos. Tony thinks tats on a woman means she's "up for anything;" Kate asks if he thinks she's up for anything. He says she hasn't got a tattoo; she says no, not any that ** _he_** will ever see. Tony looks like he doesn't quite know what to do with that information. He also learns a valuable lesson on not judging a book by its cover!

In Abby's lab, Ducky takes on the role of Captain Exposition and teaches us that Super Glue in gaseous form will bond to latent fingerprints on human flesh. We learn that Abby is one of those older sisters that makes you wonder how the little brother survived childhood. There is one fingerprint on the leg. In Autopsy, we learn that the victim had a titanium ankle joint, which will have a serial number traceable to the doctor who performed the surgery. The victim was also dismembered with a power saw. Ducky goes into a tangential story about his Grand Tour of Europe after he graduated from high school (the looks on Tony and Gibbs' faces are priceless).

In the squad room, Kate calls to find out about the ankle joint and Tony obsesses about her tattoo. Between the two of them, they locate the orthopedic surgeon who installed the joint. Gibbs interviews the surgeon, who provides the victim's name: PFC Thomas Dorn, who (according to his service record) has been dead for two years. According to the service record, a Dr. Sylvia Chalmers of Harmony, WV, presided over the death, which was due to myocardial infarction (heart attack). No autopsy was done.

In the lab, Abby finds a piece of trace evidence on the sock. In the car, Kate and Tony debate the relative merits of small towns and Kate actually uses the phrase "a slice of Americana" which makes even her most devout fans want to stab her in the eye. In the squad room, Abby reports to Gibbs that the fingerprint on the leg didn't have a match in AFIS and the trace evidence on the sock was a piece of straw. In Harmony, Tony flirts with the doctor's receptionist. In Abby's lab, she reports that the seed came from a sycamore tree.

In Harmony, Dr. Chalmers comes across as a sweet and slightly out-of-it old woman. At the time Dorn died, she was the only doctor for 40 miles. She states that Dorn came in on his own, short of breath and having chest pains. There is a great deal of folksiness in the room; Dorn came into the doctor's office instead of an exam room because they only have one and the Thomas twins were in it with the measles; when Dorn collapsed, they called for an ambulance, but it was working a car accident way out on Turtle Creek. Kate wonders why the coroner didn't do an autopsy; turns out, Chalmers _was_ the coroner at the time. Kate mentions that they are going to be exhuming the body; Chalmers advises them that Dorn's sister had the body cremated. She goes on and on about feeling sorry for the sister. Tony shows her a picture of a Marine, asks if she recognizes it. She says no, and Tony tells her that is PFC Dorn.

As they leave, they discuss the fact that the doctor wore Estee Lauder perfume. Tony gets back on the tattoo thing; Kate tells him it's a rose on her butt and asks if they can please move on. In the squad room, Abby reports that the levels of Digitalis - a heart medication - in Dorn's leg was lethally high. Kate and Tony arrive back and pass on what they have learned. It's obvious they bought Chalmers's sweet-but-stupid act. They have found the sister - actually a half-sister - living in Maryland. Kate and Gibbs head out to question her. We learn that Abby knows where Kate's tat is, but isn't telling. (And all the Kate/Abby shippers cheer.)

Upon arriving at Melissa Dorn's house, the first thing we see is a giant sycamore tree in the front yard. Melissa Dorn is a redhead and Gibbs' automatic redhead reflexes kick in. Kate prepares to do lots of eye-rolling. We learn that Gibbs is an only child. Kate says they are working a case with a tenuous connection to Dorn's. Melissa hasn't kept any of his personal effects. She offers Gibbs coffee, and they wander off to the kitchen to flirt, leaving Kate to snoop around and see if she can find anything. The flirting, which doesn't bear repeating, gets very overboard, causing Kate and millions of viewers to roll their eyes. Kate finds nothing to give them probable cause, but Gibbs takes a seed sample from the big sycamore outside. He brings two sycamore seeds to Abby, tells her they are from the same tree, and asks for a DNA match. She says six hours.

In the squad room, Tony finds a motive for the murder of PFC Dorn: his half-sister collected $750,000 in life insurance. He and Kate go to question the insurance adjuster, who says the company paid the claim to avoid a lawsuit. They discuss Gibbs' flirtation with Melissa; we learn that all three of his wives have been redheads. Kate actually acts jealous over the flirtation. In the squad room, Gibbs talks the case over with Ducky; he is stumped. They discuss the facts. Then Gibbs asks Ducky who he would get to pose as a Marine. Ducky's reply: "You." Something dawns on Gibbs and he begins to laugh, grabs his coat and heads out. In the lab, Abby pulls up her DNA - and gets a negative match.

Gibbs goes to question Dorn's former CO, a Gunny Vestman, who remembers Gibbs when Gibbs was an MP at Camp Lejeune. Vestman's memories of Dorn are not so positive: he remembers that Dorn was a druggie who was about to be drummed out of the Corps when the accident that caused the titanium ankle joint did it for him. Dorn was tight with a Corporal Morgan, who went UA the same time Dorn died, and both of them ran with a redhead called Melissa. Vestman further says that both Dorn and Morgan were "shacked up" with Melissa (and the audience shudders _en masse_ ). Gibbs now takes on the role of Captain Exposition: he thinks Dorn and Melissa killed Morgan, identified him as Dorn, cremated him and claimed the insurance money.

In Abby's lab, she is flipped out over a positive match. Gibbs tells her good work, and she flips out further over the fact that one sample from the tree matches while the other sample, ostensibly from the same tree, does not. Gibbs confesses that the non-matching sample came from a different tree; he was giving Abby a blind test. She reacts predictably. Gibbs is pretty pleased; the DNA match places Dorn at Melissa's house, giving them probable cause to search. The team heads to Maryland. Tony goes over the barn floor with Luminol and black light; Gibbs and Kate take the house. Tony finds marks on the barn floor that indicate where a body may have been dismembered; around and in the marks, he finds traces of blood.

Kate and Gibbs use the old glass-of-water trick to obtain Melissa's fingerprints. Tony comes into the house and almost immediately twigs to the presence of someone else in the house. He and Gibbs go to investigate the upstairs and in a very dramatic scene, they discover, hiding in an upstairs closet - Dr. Sylvia Chalmers. When they bring her downstairs, she is addressed by Melissa - to the surprise of everyone - as "Mama."  
Chalmers goes into detail about how Melissa defrauded an insurance company at the behest of her "wicked half-brother" and goes on about how everything is Melissa's fault; Gibbs points this out to Melissa.

Gibbs goes on to tell Chalmers that the digitalis in Dorn's leg can be identified by a chemical marker as having come from a stock belonging to Chalmers. Melissa tells Chalmers that the investigators know Chalmers killed Dorn and chopped him up. Chalmers slaps Melissa and says that they can't use anything she's said in court; Gibbs retorts that Melissa was read her rights and waived them; they can use it all.

Back in the squad room, Tony reports that Dorn's left arm was found in a garbage dump in Chiefton, right arm in Katy Lick and torso in Marshville; left leg and head are still unaccounted for. Tony cracks a joke about Kate's tattoo, and Gibbs indicates he knows what the tattoo is (and probably where it is).

 _End credits._


	13. Episode 13: One Shot, One Kill

**S1Ep13 - One Shot, One Kill**

* * *

In a convenience store, two young men are playing a "shoot 'em up" video game and are frustrated by the game's difficulty. As they turn to leave, their attention is drawn to nearby game. A uniformed marine shoots with unerring accuracy, and sets the high score on the machine with apparent ease.

Cut to a Marine Corps Recruiting Station. The marine from the store is shown to be the recruiting officer. He tells the boys that if they sign up, he'll do whatever he can to get them posted to the duty station of their choice: Hawaii, Italy, Spain. "Iraq?" one boy asks eagerly. The recruiter sits back and tells them that the operations in Iraq are likely to be over before they finish the expected 18 months of training. "Truth is most marines don't see combat," he says. "I mean, look at me! Been in the Corps sixteen years. The closest I've ever come to a bullet is..." His coffee cup shatters. He slumps over his desk, shot in the heart. Their faces splattered with blood, the potential recruits look at each other in astonishment.

 _Opening credits._

The NCIS team has arrived at the scene. They interview the two witnesses. A red string extends from a hole in the window-front to the recruiter's wound. Ducky can't move the body until they take pictures, and Gerald is no-where to be found. "Can we hurry it up?" Gibbs asks, "I don't think Gunnery Sergeant Alvarez would appreciate being seen like this." He moves off while Ducky chats with the dead sergeant.

DiNozzo looks for the bullet in a box at the back of the room. "You got your knife on you, Boss?" he asks Gibbs. Gibbs hands it over with an admonishment: "Rule number 9: Never go anywhere without a knife." "You sure about that?" DiNozzo returns. "I thought 9 was 'Never ask a girl to wait on the first date." Kate joins the conversation. "That depends on if you want a second one or not, Tony." She reports that the two boys can only help them with Alvarez's position when he was shot. Several witnesses heard the gunshot, but no-one saw anyone. It could be gang related - a cinder block had been thrown through the window recently. The bullet has passed through a box and completely through the sheet-rock wall into an adjacent warehouse. "You two better get going. Don't come back without my bullet!"

Tony and Kate talk to the assistant manager of the neighboring toy warehouse. The manager had actually heard of NCIS: he had seen a television show that featured one of their cases. "You guys couldn't solve it," he concludes, "So they brought in the FBI and those guys..."

Tony is not amused. "Bullet went through the common wall into your warehouse. We need to forensically trace its trajectory." "Not a problem," the manager agrees. "You gonna use the laser pointer, or the more outdated string technique?"

Ducky and Gerald wheel the gurney to the ME van just as the CO, Major Dougherty, arrives. Alvarez is described as a legend - a career recruiter that never missed a quota. There had been some trouble with gangs in the area and vandalism. Gibbs asks about complaints from any men that Alvarez had recruited. There have been a few, but the Major is completely willing to cooperate.

In the warehouse, Tony and Kate can't find the bullet. A case of dolls had been sitting in the trajectory, and has since been shipped to Richmond. The manager can call the driver. "Good!" Tony says, "Because we've got a new address for drop-off."

Gibbs drops a load of files onto Kate's desk. It's the last seven years of Alvarez' correspondence - he wants her to go through it all looking for clues. Down in Forensics, Abby has pulled the heads off every doll, and removed the clothing from each of them. "It was kind of fun," she tells Tony before "starting her first autopsy." She cuts open the head of the doll with the bullet and carefully lifts it out with a pair of forceps. She studies the bullet for a few moments and models the trajectory. Her conclusion is that it was fired from very long range with a rifle. "Our shooter is a sniper," Gibbs realizes.

That night in the squadroom, they review what they know of Alvarez. He had a gift for exaggerating the opportunities available in the Corps. One recruit wanted to be a paramedic, so Alvarez promised him that the Corps would train him to save lives - without mentioning that the Corps doesn't have any medical personnel at all. "Technically, he is correct," Gibbs notes, "Marines do save lives. Mostly through the use of superior firepower." Kate concludes that Alvarez' technique was bait and switch. One fellow wanted to be a pilot, so Alvarez promised that he'd be sitting in a pilot seat within two years. (He signed him up as an Ejection Seat technician.) She hasn't found any apparent threats. The phone rings - it's the authorization to enter the building from which they believe the shooter fired. Gibbs and DiNozzo head out, leaving Kate to continue working through the old files.

Tony and Gibbs walk through the dilapidated buildings and reach the warehouse. It's dark and dingy inside. "Hey, DiNozzo, kind of reminds me of your apartment, except for that minty-fresh urine smell." "For your information, I have a maid now." "You can afford a maid?" "It's amazing what you can do when you don't have to pay three alimonies." They reach the wall that faces the recruiting station - it's completely bricked up with no windows. After a few moments search, Gibbs finds what he's been looking for: A loose brick in the wall. They pull it out and bag it. Gibbs looks through the opening with a rifle sight. "Oh boy, we've got a major problem." "What do you see?" "A shooter who is highly intelligent and methodical. Out of a thousand bricks in this wall, he only removed the one he needed." There's a direct line of sight to the desk chair inside the distant recruiting station.

The next morning, Kate reports on her findings. Most of the files are thank you letters from Alvarez' recruits. There is a small stack of minor complaints, and only two that stood out. One writer threatened to cut off Alvarez' head - but the writer died six months earlier in Iraq. The other writer, Sergeant Barnes, claims that Alvarez told him that if he signed up for a six-year enlistment that he would qualify for the Marine Enlisted Commissioning Program. After his contract was signed, he discovered that his high-school GPA was too low for admittance. Barnes wrote to Alvarez saying that he was planning to "look him up" as soon as he was released from duty. The kicker: The sergeant was subsequently selected for sniper school. He was good enough that they brought him back as an instructor.

Deep in the woods, Barnes critiques several trainees. "Close doesn't count in combat, Corporal! Even a half-inch off, your target has the opportunity to live and return the favor." The team approaches Barnes, wanting to talk about Gunnery Sergeant Freddy Alvarez. Barnes isn't surprised that Alvarez' recruiting techniques have caught up with him - promising things he knew he couldn't deliver. Kate shows Barnes the letter, but Barnes denies any involvement. He says that he had been doing individual P.T. at the time of the shooting (running around a resivoir), and that Corporal Stinson can corroborate. Stinson is out in the field running a land navigation course.

Gibbs leads his team directly to Stinson's location. Stinson agrees that he was doing P.T. with Sergeant Barnes. "We were running the obstacle course, Ma'am."

In Interrogation, Barnes faces Gibbs across the table. He says that Gunny Alvarez had lied to him, and that he wrote the letter in anger. But he says that the Marines were the best thing to happen to him, and that he loves being in the Corps. He just reenlisted for another term. Barnes adamantly denies being the shooter.

Cut to another recruiting station. Someone carefully lines up his long-range shot and fires. The recruiter dies instantly.

The team arrives at the scene of the shooting. Barnes was in their custody at the time of the second shooting, but Gibbs believes he's lying about something so won't release him yet. Just as they begin their work, a car load of FBI agents arrive and an argument over jurisdiction breaks out. Since the second shooting was in a different state, the Director of the FBI has claimed jurisdiction, even though the victims were both Marines. The FBI Special Agent in Charge tells Gibbs to expect a call from the NCIS Director shortly. Meanwhile, the FBI team begins studying the scene (using laser pointers to find the trajectory!)

Ducky doesn't believe that he would learn much from the body - the bullet passed cleanly through. The bullet will be their best source. "Then I suggest that we help our good friends, the FBI, find it." Gibbs says. "Tony, make a hole. Kate, find the bullet." Ducky distracts some of the FBI team with his attempts to reach the body. Tony reports finding a "secondary bullet hole", which draws the rest of the FBI team over as Gibbs again claims jurisdiction. Meanwhile, Kate pries the real bullet from the wall, bags it, and tucks it inside her jacket. In the middle of the jurisdiction argument, Gibbs' phone rings. (It's really Tony calling from outside the office, telling Gibbs that Kate has the bullet.) Gibbs pretends that the call is from the NCIS Director, and gracefully yields to the FBI. As he picks up his bag to leave, Gibbs spots a small white feather on the floor next to the water cooler.

As they walk out to the van, Gibbs tells the team about Carlos Hathcock, a famed Marine sniper in Vietnam. Hathcock always wore a small white feather in the band of his hat. If they find a feather at Alvarez' office, it means the shooter likes to leave a calling call - and likes to meet the recruiter before killing him.

Abby reports that the two bullets were certainly fired from the same model of gun, and possibly from the same gun. But she has troubles with the trajectory - there is no building in the line of fire. The shooter probably fired from a car, truck or van.

Tony and Kate carefully search the first recruiting office while Gibbs probes into Sergeant Barnes' lie. Barnes confesses to having an extra-marital affair in a motel just outside the camp's main gate.

Back in the recruiting station, Tony and Kate haven't found anything. They realize that a feature could have blown away in a cross breeze, then think to look in the ventilation duct. Sure enough, there's a small white feather.

Kate's profiling skills suggest that the shooter is not in the military. Gibbs realizes that he's targeting recruiters because they turned him away. The Marines turn down thousands of people every year, so it would take them a long time to review all of the records. Yet if he continues his pattern, the shooter will strike again in less than 24 hours. Gibbs decides it's time to become proactive.

At the original recruiting station, Major Dougherty is holding a press conference to announce that the station will re-open the next day. He introduces the new recruiter as Gunnery Sergeant Thomas. It's really Gibbs. He's going undercover. In a distant building, the sniper watches through his scope.

In the squadroom the next morning, Gibbs very carefully checks Kate's Marine Corps uniform for correctness. She is going to pose as Gibbs' commanding officer so that she can use her profiling skills on site. Tony is somewhat jealous. She's wearing a bulletproof vest beneath the uniform.

Tony has a uniform, too - he's sent to pose as a telephone lineman, climbing utility poles to install three special microphones for Abby. Major Dougherty would prefer to stay with Kate and Gibbs in the recruiting station, but Gibbs makes a strong case for him to leave. "Major, your mission is to protect our country. Our mission right now is to protect you and your marines. Allow us the honor of doing our job."

All of the communications check out, and the waiting begins. The morning is actually fairly busy, and Gibbs does an excellent job as a recruiter. Kate isn't happy, though, because Gibbs took off his vest - he said it was visible under his shirt. Tony is in a car just outside, and both NCIS and the FBI have surveillance vans waiting. Kate signs off on a water bottle delivery while watching Gibbs sign the contract with another young man. At Gibbs' questioning look, Kate shakes her head no.

At 4:30, the FBI team wants to close up the operation for the day, since the prior shootings were in the early afternoon. DiNozzo doesn't agree. A nervous, somewhat sullen young man comes in just before closing. His eyes light up when Gibbs mentions snipers, but he's uncertain and decides that he should come back later. As he leaves, Kate nods her head at Gibbs and alerts Tony. Gibbs steps to the water cooler for a drink and spots a small white feather. He remembers the delivery guy. "He was already here," he tells Kate. She tells Tony to forget about the kid and to find the water delivery guy. Gibbs turns and looks out the front window.

The sniper takes careful aim at Gibbs and pulls the trigger. We see the bullet fly through the air - and be stopped by the new pane of bullet-resistant glass. It would have been a kill shot.

Gibbs blinks. Kate sighs in relief. Abby's microphones picked up the sound of the shot, and she's able to triangulate the shooter's position a few blocks away. The teams head out to cover the building as the sniper leaves the area. Tony spies him and takes aim, calling for the sniper to drop his weapon. The sniper just keeps on walking until the FBI van seals the other end of the alley. He turns back towards Tony, raises his rifle and fires from the hip. Tony immediately returns fire with much better accuracy.

In the squadroom, Kate has found records of the sniper's rejection from the Corps - he had failed the personality tests because of his anti-social tendencies. His stated preference? Sniper. Gibbs agrees that he was a good marksman. After Gibbs leaves, Tony asks Kate what it was like to be Gibbs' superior officer for the day. She closes the episode by teasing him about how good he looked in his uniform - and that he'd fit right in with the biker boy, the Indian chief, the cowboy and the cop singing "Macho Macho Man".

 _End Credits_


	14. Episode 14: The Good Samaritan

**S1Ep14 - The Good Samaritan**

* * *

A navy dentist stops near a parked car to help a stranded female motorist, who pulls out a gun.

 _Opening credits.  
_  
In the squad room Kate is dealing with her emergency contact information. Tony volunteers and against her better judgement, Kate accepts. Tony immediately makes it a big deal and Kate changes her mind to Abby. Abby is walking through reading her horoscope and is grateful that she is not a Libra. Gibbs comes through carrying two cups of coffee. The phone rings and they're off to the crime scene.

They arrive on the scene and met the local sheriff, Charley, who is reluctant to turn over the investigation to them. Charley, who insists several times that Gibbs call her that, drives a hard bargain before conceding that they can do the forensics work. The investigation is hers and all prosecution will be in her county. It's an election year.

The crime scene is markedly different from what we saw in the opening. It now looks like the dentist had the flat tire and was changing it when he was attacked. Ducky tells Charley the biblical tale of the good Samaritan. Ducky flirts, but Charley shoots him down. Charley is much more interested in Gibbs and is quite direct about it. Charley even manages to get Gibbs after hours number, just in case she needs to get a hold of him.

Back in the autopsy suite, Ducky has determined that the bullet was most likely a hollow point. Gerald comes in and Ducky explains how the dum-dum bullet got its name. Gerald says that he actually finds that interesting. Ducky responds as opposed to what?

Gibbs interviewed his CO, a woman, while Tony and Kate search his apartment. The CO says that the major spent most of his off time doing collectibles on the internet. Tony stumbles across the dentist's eBay login "igottoomany" and the dentist definitely has too many. The dentist collected lunchboxes and has a whole room full.

They're all back at the squadroom and Sheriff Charley has been trying to contact Gibbs. The sheriff wants to video conference and tell Gibbs about the similar homicide two counties over. The team starts checking the new victim, a civilian who worked at the same base as the dentist, for ties to the first one, and the dentist's CO. They also are to get the records from the local LEOs for this murder.

Back in Ducky's autopsy suite, Ducky has determined that the cause of death is pretty straight forward. The gunshot residue indicates that the dentist was shot at a close range. Ducky also found a powder on the victim's wrists, most likely corn starch. Ducky starts to tell Gibbs about the use of corn starch in latex gloves, but Gibbs cuts him off. Without missing a beat, Ducky continues his story with Gerald as his new audience.

Abby is in the garage, working on the supposed flat tire from the victim's car. She and Gibbs try to out bluff each other as to whether or not they know what the other is thinking. It ends in a draw with the conclusion that they should play poker together sometime. Abby has discovered that the flat tire was not really flat, the air was let out. Gibbs inquires after the tire tracks lifted at the crime scene and Abby replies in a manner which makes Gibbs note that she is particularly feisty today. After looking at the tire track evidence, they move on to fingerprints. Abby found fingerprints on the hood. Gibbs asks if she ran it through AFIS, as Abby says AFIS. Gibbs remarks feisty and psychic to which Abby replies it's a killer combination. Abby also found corn starch on the lock of the trunk, but Gibbs all ready knew that. Abby stops and then says "Ducky." They have determined that this was not a crime of opportunity, but a very well planned out murder.

Back in the squad room, Kate is having trouble with the phone tree of the county clerk's office. She cannot seem to get a real person on the phone to request the records of that crime. And that's when Charley walks in. She is in civilian clothes with her hair loose. She's bringing gifts, the evidence from the other crime scene, but she will only give it to Gibbs. Once it's delivered, she informs Gibbs he owes her dinner. Gibbs inquires as to whether or not Charley has always been this shy. She responds that there are two kinds of people, the ones that go after what they want, and everybody else. Gibbs takes her to the cafeteria for dinner.

When Gibbs returns, Kate and Tony are standing looking at the plasma screen, with knowing smiles on their faces. Gibbs ask if they have something to say, they reply no in unison and turn back to their work. The crime scene appears to be almost identical to theirs. But one of the local LEOs noticed a wet patch of grass and bagged it. The local LEOs were still waiting for DNA identification on the urine. Gibbs tells them to get the sample to their lab where they will rush it.  
Cut to a shot of a car on the side of the road with its blinkers on, followed by a dumped, naked body. The last shot is of a car with its blinkers on, but these are red blinkers, not white as in the previous shot.

As they arrive at the crime scene, Tony goes on and on about the car, an X4. This car does not have a flat tire like the previous victims' cars did. Charley is on the scene, waiting for Gibbs. Kate says it looks like the work of the same person, but Ducky disagrees. This body was killed elsewhere between 2 and 3 in the afternoon and then dumped here. They think this is the work of a copycat killer.

Gibbs thinks they are looking for a woman. Charley says "what's your thinking, doll?" Gibbs says that men prefer hands on killing, women don't. Women leave crime scenes meticulously clean. What would cause a man to pull over at night? A damsel in distress. Charley says "handsome AND smart." Gibbs assigns Kate and Tony to go over all the records on base, looking for a disgruntled employee. Gibbs says he is going to go and interview the latest victim's REO. Kate wants to know if there is any rhyme or reason in how Gibbs makes assignments. Gibbs answers "yea" and then walks away with Charley, both of them laughing.

The latest victim's REO says they should be looking at his wife, soon to be ex-wife. The divorce was very nasty and Jimmy came from a wealthy family.

Gibbs and Kate interview the widow, Laura Seeger. She says she is very upset at her husband's death despite the rancour of their divorce. She tells them that she knows she is at the top of their list of suspects and to just ask her the questions they came to ask. Gibbs asks if she killed her husband. She says no. She provides an alibi and also agrees to provide a DNA sample.

Ducky finds that the two autopsies were nearly identical. "It was deja vu all over again" which leads to a discussion between Tony and Kate on the difference between Yogi Bear and Yogi Berra. Ducky says he found something in the victim's nose and he took a swab to it. Gibbs comments that's kind of old school, isn't it and Ducky says he goes where the evidence takes him. Then Ducky starts to tell a story about a corpse with jelly from a doughnut on his face. Sadly, we'll never hear the end because Gibbs interrupts to ask about the swab.

The victim had sawdust in his nose. Laura Seeger said that her husband had a woodshop at the back of their property. There was also a dog hair in the nostril. Laura has dogs. Laura also seems to have a solid alibi, but they'll check into that.

Abby is in her lab listening to something on headphones when Gibbs sneaks up on her. Abby does not appreciate it. But she has something for him, something that will rock Gibbs' world. Abby has matched the bullet from the first victim to the third victim, which means there was not a copycat killer. All three were killed by the same person. The new speculation is that Laura Seeger killed two strangers to cover up killing her husband, making it look like a serial killer.

Gibbs wants a report on the DNA match. Abby tells him he cannot rush science. There won't be a match for at least 18 hours.

Charley shows up in the squad room with the video tapes from the bank to verify Laura Seeger's alibi. She hasn't looked at them because she can't watch movies alone. She also picked up a copy of Sleepless in Seattle, just in case. Gibbs is finding Charley's pursuit of him amusing. Laura Seeger is on the bank's video tape just like she said she would be. Her alibi has been confirmed. Gibbs wonders if the bank uses a central system for their security tapes. Laura could have had an accomplice change the time. "How hard is it for an attractive woman to get a guy to do what she wants?" Both Charley and Kate answer that it's easy. Tony tells them it was a rhetorical question.

Gibbs hands out assignments, including one for Charley, although she tells him it will cost him. Gibbs keeps the tapes so that Abby can go over them and make sure the shadows are consistent with the time of day.

Back at Laura Seegers', she doesn't appear surprised to see Gibbs at her door. She also doesn't seem to be surprised by anything he says, including that they found sawdust and dog hair in her late husband's nose. Laura insists that she has nothing to hide and doesn't understand what Gibbs wants from her.

Kate and Tony discover that the Seeger's pre-nup means that Laura would have gotten nothing in the divorce. If Seeger died before they were divorced, she would inherit all that money. In the conversation we discover that Tony thinks ABBA are Swiss not Swedish, and denies the truth (but at least he likes them). Gibbs returns and it is clear from his demeanour that the interview with Laura did not go as he had hoped.

Abby has called Gibbs and is ready to rock his world again. Laura Seeger's DNA matches the DNA from the urine sample at the second crime scene. They cannot match because Laura has an iron-clad alibi. But they do.

Gibbs and team plus Charley show up at Laura Seeger's with a search warrant. Laura has an alibi for her husband's murder, but not for victim number two, the crime scene with the urine. Laura insists that someone is setting her up, that someone must have stolen her urine and planted it at the crime scene. Laura gave two urine samples within the last month and her doctor is the woman who was the first victim's CO, Commander Green. Turns out she had a problem with Seeger; he filed a sexual harassment complaint against her. The matter had not gotten to the review board yet; Seeger was killed before it did. Commander Green asks Gibbs if he's trying to insinuate something; Gibbs responds he doesn't insinuate. Gibbs wants the medical records from Laura Seeger's physical; Commander Green declines. They discuss whether or not these medical records are military records and Commander Green says she'll have to check Gibbs' interpretation, which will take a while. Gibbs asks for her alibi; she was at a medical conference in D.C.

Back in the squad room they are discussing the fact that both of their prime suspects have iron-clad alibis. That the DNA at the crime scene was from one of their prime suspect and also in the possession of their other prime suspect. Tony is in favour of it being the Commander because that whole sexual harassment thing is just wrong. Kate gets a phone call from Arlene in Records which answers the question.

Cut to nighttime with the team moving in a vehicle talking to the OnStar operator. They have a location on the vehicle they are tracking. Charley rogers that she has that location. Tony chimes in that they've made their pickup and hopes they get there before someone else does.

There is the rear of a vehicle with the same white lights blinking that we've seen before. A man's feet are walking up to the vehicle. It's Gibbs, flashlight in hand. He commands the person in the vehicle to put her hands where he can see them and opens the car door. Laura Seeger emerges from the vehicle. Laura is handcuffed as more police cars arrive. Laura is taken to the rear of one of the police vehicles only to see her identical twin sister in the back seat of the car.

Back in the squad room, Tony is fixated on the twins thing. As they are talking Charley comes on the TV for a press conference about the arrest. Charley starts out saying there is a group of people she would like to thank and Tony is certain they are about to get the credit they deserve. Charley calls them unsung heroes and Kate responds not once you start singing. Charley, however, is talking about the citizens of Graysen County. Kate and Tony are surprised; Gibbs is just amused. As he says, "It's an election year."

 _End Credits_


	15. Episode 15: Enigma

**S1Ep15 - Enigma**

* * *

In a dark room, an older Marine is bound and forced to kneel on a dirt floor. The hood is whipped from his head and a single bright light shines in his eyes. His masked captors question him, asking for the location of three packages of money. He remains defiant in spite of their threats to kill him.

Behind his back, he manipulates a pocket knife to cut his bindings.

The marine's name is Ryan, and he's wearing the silver eagle insignia of a Colonel. He suddenly whips one hand out from behind his back, throwing the knife into one of his captors. The other captor strips off his mask and helps Ryan to escape. Before leaving, Ryan turns to the bright light and addresses his unseen interrogator. "By the way, it was four packages, not three." Ryan cheerily waves goodbye and leaves.

 _Opening credits._

The mail cart arrives in the squadroom. A package for Gibbs is left on his desk as Tony takes pleasure in anticipating the contents of two letters he has just received. He explains to Kate that he recently broke up with his last girlfriend, because she was under the impression that they were in an exclusive relationship. Kate smiles and asks what happens. "She broke into my apartment and filled my closet with dog crap." Kate laughs, and says she would have simply shot him instead. "That's the reason for Rule number 12", Gibbs says as he arrives, "Never date a co-worker." He sets the package aside, since they've all been summoned to meet with the Director in MTAC.

Director Morrow tells them that a Marine officer carrying $2 million dollars of cash recovered from Saddam Hussein was ambushed. His driver was found dead on the scene, but the officer and the cash are missing. "The officer was Colonel Will Ryan, Agent Gibbs." Gibbs is completely surprised, but Morrow continues. The FBI sent footage of Colonel Ryan entering the country at Dulles airport two days earlier. Ryan was traveling under an assumed name. The FBI believes he may have staged the ambush and kept the money for himself. "Not possible, sir," Gibbs says, "If he's back in the States I guarantee he's got a damn good reason." Morrow would like to know that reason. Their job is to find him and bring him in. "If he's turned on us, it could compromise half of our operations in Iraq." "The Colonel would rather die than betray our country, sir," Gibbs tells him. Morrow hopes that's true, but as of today Ryan has made the FBI's most-wanted list.

In Forensics, Abby has reviewed the airport surveillance footage. It looks like Ryan is talking to someone, but she can't tell who. She'll continue searching.

Kate notes that Ryan served as an instructor in the Corps' SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) school for three years. Tony is curious about Gibbs' package, and vigorously shakes it to guess what might be inside. Gibbs is not amused when he catches Tony with the package. Kate tells him that Ryan will likely be hard to find, but Gibbs has a good idea of where to start looking. He'll tell them on the way. Tony and Kate leave to get the sedan as Gibbs opens his package.

It contains a silver Marine pocket flask and a scrawled note. The note reads, "Millions being smuggled out of Iraq. Used to fund covert operations outside military and government oversight. I'll contact when I know more." The flask is engraved: it was a 1991 gift from Gunnery Sergeant L.J. Gibbs to Lt. Colonel W.D. Ryan. It contains only sand.

The NCIS car pulls up outside a rustic cabin deep in the woods. Gibbs explains that the Colonel always came to this cabin whenever he had leave. They see that the door has been broken open, and enter with sidearms drawn. No-one appears to be inside. In a bedroom, they find a man bound to a chair. He's been shot in the forehead, and died perhaps three or four hours earlier. A camera tripod is set up facing the chair. "Colonel Ryan didn't do this," Gibbs says. "Someone stormed this place. He wouldn't shoot the lock off his own door."

They see signs of blood and a struggle around the cabin, and speculate that Ryan may have been shot by unknown assailants while trying to escape through a back door. Gibbs hears some sort of beeping, and traces the noise to the bedroom. He looks underneath the bed and spots a bomb! They race out of the cabin, take cover behind the car and... nothing happens.

Some time later, they're still taking cover behind the car. Gibbs is whittling to pass the time while Kate types on her PDA. He assures her yet again that it really was a bomb. DiNozzo notes that EOD is taking a long time to arrive. Ducky and Gerald arrive in the ME van. "Gibbs thought he saw a bomb," Kate tells them.  
"What do you mean, thought?"  
"Do I really have to say it?" she asks.  
"Say what?"  
"Yes, Kate, say what?" Ducky urges.  
"You need glasses, Gibbs. Are you happy?"  
The bomb explodes.  
When they recover, Gibbs looks back at Kate. "I'm sorry. I didn't quite catch that last part."

In Autopsy, Gibbs presses Ducky for a quick identification of the dead man they had found in the cabin. It will be a challenge, since the body is badly burned and mangled from the explosion. He might be able to match DNA, but it will take nine or ten days. "I don't suppose any of you bothered to take his photograph before you ran screaming from the place." Gibbs asks Kate to sketch the man with Tony's help. "Nobody talks about this case unless it's with me!"

Upstairs, Gibbs' phone rings. It's Ryan, calling from a pay phone in a bar, and he wants to meet with Gibbs. "Negative," Ryan says, "That's the first place they'll try to re-acquire me." "Who?" "That's kind of what I'm trying to figure out, Gunny." He wants to meet at midnight at the bar where Gibbs bought the flask. He cautions Gibbs not to be followed. After hanging up, Ryans returns to a booth where he talks with a companion. The other man urges Ryan not to trust Gibbs, because people can change. "What if you're wrong, sir?" the man asks. Ryan shows his handgun. "There's a first time for everything," he says.

Kate is struggling with the sketch. Tony offers to help, and sketches a simple stick figure. Gibbs arrives and wants them to concentrate on anyone shipping currency into or out of Iraq. He leaves for the bar, but notices two men in black suits following him. Gibbs strolls through a mall, purchases an umbrella, then leaves and blocks the door closed by putting the umbrella through the handles. He chuckles as he leaves the frustrated followers behind.

In the bar, Ryan talks with his companion. "There was a time you would have trusted Gunnery Sergeant Gibbs with your life, Lieutenant." "But what if he's followed, sir?" That would compromise both of them. Ryan agrees that they should split up. The man moves away. Gibbs arrives and helps the Colonel to his feet, noticing that Ryan has a wound near his knee. They talk near the empty pool tables, away from other patrons.

Ryan explains that his task force was charged with recovering cash that Saddam Hussein has stashed around the country. They found about $30 million dollars. But Ryan started noticing discrepancies, errors and missing reports. He believes that someone high in the chain of command has been stealing money. He set up a decoy shipment of $2 million in cash to draw them out. "It worked, just not the way I intended. They killed my man and captured me." "Who?" "CIA, NSA, hell NCIS for all I know. These guys have black ops stamped all over them. They're stealing money to fund -something- and they're killing anyone who finds out about it."

Ryan is surprised to hear that the man in his cabin was dead - Ryan had been interrogating him to find out what was going on. He's been in the country for the last ten days. Gibbs urges him to come into NCIS, but Ryan declines. He's afraid that the perpetrators have infiltrated every level. He did videotape his interrogation, but the cassette was damaged when his cabin was shot up. Gibbs will give it to Abby to see what she can recover. Ryan leaves.

In Forensics, Abby is frustrated. She has spent all day reviewing airport tapes. She was unable to find Ryan on other other tapes, she's determined that the video provided by the FBI was from a week and a half earlier (not two days ago). She's even more frustrated when Gibbs tells her those facts before she can tell him. "Did I mention that I spent all day doing this?" she asks. "The FBI lied to us," Gibbs says, "They've been using us to find Ryan this whole time."

The next morning, FBI Agent Fornell and his team arrive bearing coffee and gifts for the team. He and Gibbs begin to argue over who would be leading the case. Gibbs takes Fornell "to have a little chat in private" in the NCIS elevator. Gibbs doesn't appreciate that Fornell lied to NCIS, but Fornell says it was justified. One of the FBI men disappeared shortly after reported that he had seen Ryan. "Next time, just ask for our help," Gibbs concludes. "You don't exactly have a reputation for playing well with others, Gibbs." "Well, maybe I might have been able to help save him!" Fornell is surprised. "What do you mean, save him?"

In Autopsy, the FBI team decides that Colonel Ryan is now a murderer. The NCIS team disagrees, citing the evidence of the break-in and gunfight at the cabin. Unfortunately, that evidence was all destroyed in the explosion. Gibbs walks away saying that he'll get the necessary evidence any way he can; Fornell says that if Gibbs protects Ryan, then the FBI will charge Gibbs with being an accessory to murder. After the FBI team leaves, Kate and Tony ask Ducky for advice - they think Gibbs doesn't trust them. Ducky believes the opposite is true and that Gibbs is protecting them from legal charges by not telling them about Ryan. He suggests that they should tell Gibbs that they're willing to help him in any way they can.

In the evidence garage Kate, Abby and Tony confront Gibbs. They "lifted" ("borrowed", "stole") Gibbs' cell phone when he wasn't looking and traced the Colonel's call to the bar. They talked to the bartender, who recognized pictures of both Gibbs and the Colonel. They're willing to back Gibbs' play, but need to know what it is. All he has ever had to do is ask. "I'll remember that for next time," Gibbs agrees and turns Ryan's shattered video tape over to Abby for processing. "But Tony, the next time you touch my cell phone, I'll break your fingers."

In Forensics, Abby reviews what she can recover from the tape. Ryan is interrogating the FBI agent, demanding to know details of the organization stealing the money. While Ryan is visible on camera, gunshots ring out just as the recoverable part of the tape ends. On the recording, Ryan talked to someone off-camera that he called Lieutenant Cameron. Gibbs and Ryan used to work with someone by that name, but he died fourteen years ago. Gibbs has Kate try to find other Camerons in the Pentagon databases; Abby and Tony will transcribe the tape. Gibbs goes home to think.

In his basement, Gibbs is surprised to find Ryan waiting for him. Ryan says that he really is working with their former company Executive Officer, Lieutenant Cameron. Gibbs reminds Ryan that Cameron died in his arms, but Ryan claims it was faked. The shadow organization has existed ever since Desert Storm; they had recruited Cameron, but he tricked them and came back to Ryan. Gibbs wants to take Ryan in for help, but Ryan won't cooperate. Ryan finally has Cameron step out of the shadows. Gibbs doesn't move. "He doesn't look happy to see me, Colonel" Ryan says.

Ryan explains that the group has been influencing national policy for years, creating bad and misleading intelligence on Iraq and the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Lt. Cameron has been infiltrating the group as part of a small cell. Ryan and Cameron have been trying to trace the leadership of the organization. Gibbs says they should get help and that they're outgunned. Ryan says that he has "made preparations". The $2 million dollars has been well hidden, and wasn't in the cabin. Gibbs tells Ryan to trust him. "I trust you, Gunny. The question is whether you're prepared to believe it."

In the squadroom, Gibbs is two hours late. Fornell arrives with a warrant for Gibbs' arrest, certain that Gibbs is with Ryan.

Ryan has taken Gibbs to a dark warehouse that he calls their base of operations. He uncovers large stacks of weapons and munitions that had been smuggled out of Iraq. Ryan's plan is to expose the shadow organisation by force if necessary. Half of the missing money is there, the other half is at a different location. Ryan says that he's known the Lieutenant was alive for the last two years, and that Cameron is "close" but not present. Gibbs tells Ryan that he needs to call his team to see if they were able to recover any information from the tape.

Tony gets the call. "Where the hell are you? Fornell's here with a warrant for your arrest."  
"Well then, it's a good thing I'm not there."  
"This is serious. He thinks you're with Colonel Ryan."  
"Well, he's smarter than he looks! I need you to get Abby to pull whatever she can off that videotape for me."  
"What are we looking for?"  
"Anything that will prove that Colonel Ryan did not kill that FBI agent."  
(Someone is monitoring the call with high-tech equipment. "We've got a solid contact," a voice says.)  
"Whatever you do, don't come back here," Tony tells Gibbs.  
"Wasn't planning on it. I'll be in touch."  
"I just hope you know..." Click. Gibbs has hung up.  
The FBI team tracing the call has got the location. The interception team is dispatched.

Abby has managed to get one shadow image of someone off the video tape. Using a new enhancement program based on a NASA algorithm used on Mars, she's able to combine several video frames together to bring out more detail. Kate recognizes the man from the file work Gibbs had her do. He's a reserve army colonel with one of the units responsible for transferring money out of Iraq.

In the warehouse, Gibbs presses Ryan for more information. "I need to know what Cameron's been telling you."  
"Enough to convince me they have people in every branch of our government."  
"How do you know you can believe him?"  
"He saved my life in Iraq. He has no reason to lie."

The FBI assault team arrives at the the warehouse and takes up their position outside.

Kate calls Gibbs. The reserve officer is Mike Granger, and she passes along the address of Granger's business.  
"I know who's behind your conspiracy," Gibbs tells Ryan, "We ID'd him off the tape."  
"That his address?"  
"Yeah, it is. We can pick him up for questioning."  
"No, no. You don't cut off conspiracy by cutting off foot soldiers, you -strike-. At the head."  
"You've got to trust me..."  
"Trust you? Like the Lieutenant trusted you? Or have you forgotten about Lieutenant Cameron?"  
"No sir! I have not forgotten him! I think about him every night! Have you forgotten him, sir?"

The FBI team storms the warehouse. Ryan is wounded in the leg when the FBI opens fire, but still manages to escape.

Outside the warehouse, Gibbs convinces Fornell to let Gibbs bring Ryan in, without the trigger-happy FBI squad. The two of them arrive at Granger's business just in time to hear a frighted shriek from the executive offices. Fornell reaches for his gun. "You take a shot at him, you answer to me" Gibbs says. "I can live with that," Fornell decides. They head for the offices.

Colonel Ryan has a gun aimed at Granger's head, and demands to know who Granger is working for.  
Terrified, Granger says they stole the money for themselves.  
"You think he'll talk if I blow his kneecap off, Lieutenant?" Ryan asks.  
Cameron, standing in the doorway, nods.  
Fornell and Gibbs are around the corner. "Who's in there with him?" Fornell asks.  
"An old friend," Gibbs answers. "Stay here. I'll bring him out." Gibbs moves around the corner.

Ryan is still holding the gun on Granger and demanding answers about the organization. He finally clubs Granger with the gun, knocking him unconscious.

Unarmed, Gibbs walks down the hallway. He ignores Lt. Cameron, who has a gun pointed at Gibbs. "Colonel," Gibbs calls.  
"I told you we couldn't trust the gunny", Cameron says.  
"Put the gun down, sir," Gibbs tells Ryan. "There is no conspiracy."  
Ryan is also aiming at Gibbs.  
"He led them to the warehouse. You can't believe a thing he says, sir" Cameron says.  
"The lieutenant's right," Ryan whispers.  
"Put the gun down!" Fornell calls as he steps into the hallway.  
Cameron quickly aims at Fornell.  
Gibbs doesn't flinch. "I told you to wait in the hall," he quietly tells Fornell.  
"As much as I'd like to, I'm not going to let him shoot you, Gibbs. Drop it, now!"  
"This whole thing was a setup!" Cameron calls.  
"Why would you do that, now?" Ryan asks Gibbs. "I don't understand."  
"Neither did Lieutenant Cameron when he died, sir." Gibbs is very calm.  
"I'm not dead, sir, I'm right here!" Cameron insists.  
"I can see that, Lieutenant!" Ryan responds. He's sweating with tension, his gun still trained on Gibbs.  
"Lieutenant Cameron bled out in my arms, sir. I couldn't save him."  
"Shut up, Gunny!" Cameron shouts.  
"Where is the Lieutenant, Colonel?" Gibbs asks.  
The camera cuts to a view of the full room. We see Fornell, Gibbs and Ryan, but no Cameron.  
"Is he behind me?" Gibbs asks. He turns to look back.

"I said shut up!" Cameron shouts again. He's weaker, less confident. He staggers back against a door for support. He looks down, and there's suddenly blood on his shirt. Cameron drops his gun, looks at Ryan. "Don't do this to me," he pleads. "Not again."

Ryan looks unsure.

"The Lieutenant died a long time ago, sir." Gibbs says. "There's a part of you that I know remembers that!"

Ryan's uncertainty grows. "That not.. no, that's not.. that can't be true. That, that can't be true" he stammers. He looks back and forth between Gibbs and Cameron.  
Cameron is holding his hands against his wound. He starts to gasp for breath.  
"Give me the gun, Colonel. Let me get you some help."  
Cameron sighs and slides down the wall. His outline becomes blurry.  
Ryan's tension increases.  
Cameron slumps to the floor and fades from view.

"Sir?" Gibbs asks.  
Ryan suddenly points the gun at his own head.  
"Colonel! You want to shoot somebody, shoot me!" Gibbs calls. "Lieutenant Cameron died saving MY life!"

Ryan can't decide what to do. He trembles violently and finally holds the gun out to Gibbs. He starts to fall, but Gibbs catches him. "Colonel..."  
Ryan sobs against Gibbs' shoulder. "I don't understand, Gibbs."  
"It's OK. None of us ever do."

In the hospital, a doctor explains that it's rare for paranoid schizophrenia to strike so late in life, but that he hopes that the Colonel can recover with proper medication. "Any idea why the Colonel fixated on Lt. Cameron, Gibbs?" Kate asks. Gibbs believes so, and remembers Cameron's final words as he died in Gibbs' arms. "I don't understand."

The camera cuts to a close-up of Colonel Ryan in his hospital room. "I don't understand," he whispers.  
"I don't understand."  
"I don't understand."  
"I don't understand."

 _End Credits_


End file.
